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Marcelo Claure, Town Hall Meetings, New Family Share Pack Plan, Unlimited Individual Plan, Discussion Thread


joshuam

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The Reuters [actually this article was the one:

http://deadline.com/2017/07/sprint-chairman-masayoshi-son-talking-warren-buffett-john-malone-deal-1202129053/

 

article mentioned buffett and malone buying some of masa's stake in sprint for up to $20 billion

 

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The Reuters [actually this article was the one:

http://deadline.com/2017/07/sprint-chairman-masayoshi-son-talking-warren-buffett-john-malone-deal-1202129053/

 

article mentioned buffett and malone buying some of masa's stake in sprint for up to $20 billion

 

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Maybe Masa should sell all of his stake to a buyer that's actually going to invest in the company. Not just sit on the company as he's doing with minimal investment hoping to buy out T-Mobile. So that he can create a wireless market with only 3 players to milk the American consumers out of billions of dollars.

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Maybe Masa should sell all of his stake to a buyer that's actually going to invest in the company. Not just sit on the company as he's doing with minimal investment hoping to buy out T-Mobile. So that he can create a wireless market with only 3 players to milk the American consumers out of billions of dollars.

 

If they buy some/all of his stake in the company and no new stock is issued, that does not provide Sprint with new capital for investment. Just Softbank getting some of their money out of Sprint to pay back the banks. If new stock is issued by Sprint when money is invested directly in Sprint then money rolls into their coffers to pay back debt and to invest in the network.

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Maybe Masa should sell all of his stake to a buyer that's actually going to invest in the company. Not just sit on the company as he's doing with minimal investment hoping to buy out T-Mobile. So that he can create a wireless market with only 3 players to milk the American consumers out of billions of dollars.

If Warren Buffet is involved, he's in for the long haul, not looking for a buyout. Probably will take the company private too. Judging by the success of the other companies he owns, there will definitely be investment into the Sprint product.

 

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If Warren Buffet is involved, he's in for the long haul, not looking for a buyout. Probably will take the company private too. Judging by the success of the other companies he owns, there will definitely be investment into the Sprint product.

 

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Why would Buffett and Malone invest their Billions in Sprint?

 

When Sprint's parent company has billions of their own. Masa is starting tech funds and all sorts of things around the world but wants independent billionaires to basically gamble with their money.

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Why would Buffett and Malone invest their Billions in Sprint?

 

When Sprint's parent company has billions of their own. Masa is starting tech funds and all sorts of things around the world but wants independent billionaires to basically gamble with their money.

 

Softbank is prohibited from investing further in Sprint by the banks that loaned them the money to buy Sprint.

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It can't be a loan. Sprint's balance sheet is already messed up.

Sprint has lost just shy of $13 billion over the past 5 years. As long as the company is bleeding money, they will need to incur more debt or offer new equity to keep infusing cash into the company.

If Warren Buffet is involved, he's in for the long haul, not looking for a buyout. Probably will take the company private too.

I doubt it. For starters $10 to $20 billion isn't enough to outright buy the company or even Softbank's stake. Furthermore, Sprint as an acquisition much less  an investment doesn't seemingly fit in with Buffett's investing strategy or recent (past 25 or so years) investing history.

 

If Masa and Marcelo were talking to Buffett about Sprint, my guess is it would be something along the lines of preferred stock with common stock warrants like what he did with Bank of America and before that GE and Goldman Sachs. Buffett gets a near guaranteed return on a portion of the nearly $90 billion in cash Berkshire is sitting on and Sprint gets a cash infusion to do with as they please. I'm not really sure that Buffett is the best source of funding though as Sprint still hasn't tapped out other cheaper options i.e. the Spectrum backed vehicles.

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Sprint has lost just shy of $13 billion over the past 5 years. As long as the company is bleeding money, they will need to incur more debt or offer new equity to keep infusing cash into the company.

I doubt it. For starters $10 to $20 billion isn't enough to outright buy the company or even Softbank's stake. Furthermore, Sprint as an acquisition much less  an investment doesn't seemingly fit in with Buffett's investing strategy or recent (past 25 or so years) investing history.

 

If Masa and Marcelo were talking to Buffett about Sprint, my guess is it would be something along the lines of preferred stock with common stock warrants like what he did with Bank of America and before that GE and Goldman Sachs. Buffett gets a near guaranteed return on a portion of the nearly $90 billion in cash Berkshire is sitting on and Sprint gets a cash infusion to do with as they please. I'm not really sure that Buffett is the best source of funding though as Sprint still hasn't tapped out other cheaper options i.e. the Spectrum backed vehicles.

 

Be careful with the $13B in losses. That is not necessarily cash that they have lost. 

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I really don't understand this sudden Warren Buffett talk rumors. Prior to this, it was about Comcast and Charter, then of course before that for the longest time it was about merging Sprint with T-Mobile.

 

I have nothing against Sprint and not bashing Sprint themselves, but it seems Softbank's control of Sprint is a complete mess, including the terms of the deal involved when Softbank bought into Sprint in the first place. Having banks tell Softbank that the company isn't allowed to invest any money into Sprint? Wow! A completely wrecked system, in my opinion.

 

At this point, I much rather Dish had bought Sprint instead and kept Dan Hesse onboard. They would at least have deployed enough spectrum to get Sprint strong enough to make a solid purchase of T-Mobile eventually, which between the three of them especially, we'd be seeing Sprint in first place dominating the other carriers.

 

Again, this isn't a Sprint problem, but a Softbank one. Hopefully Masa unloads Sprint to someone who will properly take care of Sprint the way it should be. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the next rumors involve AT&T, Verizon, or possibly Bill Gates.

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I really don't understand this sudden Warren Buffett talk rumors. Prior to this, it was about Comcast and Charter, then of course before that for the longest time it was about merging Sprint with T-Mobile.

 

I have nothing against Sprint and not bashing Sprint themselves, but it seems Softbank's control of Sprint is a complete mess, including the terms of the deal involved when Softbank bought into Sprint in the first place. Having banks tell Softbank that the company isn't allowed to invest any money into Sprint? Wow! A completely wrecked system, in my opinion.

 

At this point, I much rather Dish had bought Sprint instead and kept Dan Hesse onboard. They would at least have deployed enough spectrum to get Sprint strong enough to make a solid purchase of T-Mobile eventually, which between the three of them especially, we'd be seeing Sprint in first place dominating the other carriers.

 

Again, this isn't a Sprint problem, but a Softbank one. Hopefully Masa unloads Sprint to someone who will properly take care of Sprint the way it should be. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the next rumors involve AT&T, Verizon, or possibly Bill Gates.

 

Dish also has tons of debt and wouldn't be of any help.  Dish was originally looking to have someone else build their network using the spectrum they own.  Sprint doesn't have enough money to deploy their own spectrum let alone someone else's spectrum.

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....

Just my thoughts...

1-  On the tmobile - comcast - buffet thing. This isn't much different from buying a home, its just talking to multiple partners to get a better deal. A Cable company might make sense, although they are debt heavy, if the real deal is with tmobile then talking to cable companies is a power play to increase sprints bargaining position. Tmobile undoubtedly was trying to assert that sprint was lucky to get any deal, this pantomime helps sprint get  a better deal. Buffet just sees sprint as heavily undervalued and that there is security in the assets, he has a pile of cash, he thinks he can come in and turn sprint around or sell it for parts and make money either way. 

2- I may be wrong but the 85% ownership limit isn't a hard cap, its a cap on how much you can have before the company is no longer allowed to be publicly traded. You pretty much buy the entire thing if you want more than 85%, unless he has covenants on his loans relating to a maximum % which would be weird. 

3- Not sure on dish, they have no money and no experience building a wireless network. Cableco's and satcos are typically very debt heavy due to high startup costs, they run to show OCF not so much pure profit. Their attraction is basically as tax free cash generators to a company that makes lots of profit. Sprint doesn't need the spectrum, they need cash, Dish would be weird choice.

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Dish tried really hard in the merger battle against Softbank for control of Sprint. I admit that at the time, I wanted Softbank to win this, because of all the power and size talk of Softbank that was being discussed online at the time. I did alot of reading on this back then, and didn't see anything mention about Softbank being kept from spending any further money investing in Sprint.

 

Something about that just sounds very odd. I mean, I agree with people here who've complained about Sprint spending on Tidal and Jay-Z, along with whatever costs there were involved in promoting Pokemon. However, those costs pale in comparison to what Softbank has spent buying other companies since they bought into Sprint. Yet, the banks somehow are keeping Softbank from spending any money helping Sprint, while here we are hearing rumors that Masa is trying to get Warren Buffett to invest in Sprint.

 

I see that Sprint itself is trying to improve, and I've been impressed by some of the things they've been doing lately, such as the new store concept, the new leasing program, some of the offers, amongst others. So, my gripes, concerns, etc. isn't against Sprint in any way, but rather against Softbank, and I'm left to wonder what if things were different and hoping that some company other than Softbank will get a hold of Sprint and let the company shine as it should be doing.

 

Again, I think Sprint is doing some great things, and I'm a fan of some of its management, but I just really do not like Softbank being involved. I suppose this is why I've been so interested in the possible merger outcomes for both reasons to get Softbank out of Sprint and get some real investment into Sprint. Yes, Sprint has excellent spectrum, they just need the cash inflow for deployment and densification.

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Because of covenants of how much softbank can spend on Sprint, I believe that is the real reason why Masa is talking to Buffet and Malone.  One scenario I can think of is for Malone and buffet to buy each 1/3 of the Sprint shares from Softbank.  With roughly 20 billions Masa receives from that exchange, he can replace most of the bonds that carry 7 to 9 percent interest rate with 3 to 4 coupon bonds.  This moves alone will save sprint 1.2 billions in interest expense yearly which can be used for capex.    

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I think really that Softbank should just create a fund that will provide Sprint a guaranteed fund for CAPEX.  Or do like a dollar for dollar match.  Put fourth a plan to get Sprint CAPEX higher towards some goal. 

 

Put forth CAPEX, an improved network will attract customers.  Both together a long with improved financials will increase those stock prices!  That is where the return is!

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Quite naive to conclude sprint leadership is a "mess" because there are inconsistent stories floating the news.

 

 

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I never said that Sprint's leadership is a mess, that is if you're referring to Sprint management. In my past several posts here, I've praised Sprint's management for what it has been doing lately. The 'mess' I'm referring to, and have directly connected in my past few posts, is Softbank. I've been very specific in distinguishing the difference between Sprint management and Softbank management.

 

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Softbank and call it out for its errors in its ownership over Sprint than just stories online. Yet, Softbank has been consistently throughout the past few years been reported on how it has had so much trouble trying to sell Sprint, rather than what they are doing to try fixing Sprint.

 

In fact, many of us here on S4GRU who actually care about Sprint have written up ideas on here how Sprint could be repaired, ideas which Softbank could easily do with the money they have. The mystery though is why they would buy Sprint when it was in trouble, if they were going to be blocked by banks from investing in fixing Sprint.

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I think really that Softbank should just create a fund that will provide Sprint a guaranteed fund for CAPEX. Or do like a dollar for dollar match. Put fourth a plan to get Sprint CAPEX higher towards some goal.

 

Put forth CAPEX, an improved network will attract customers. Both together a long with improved financials will increase those stock prices! That is where the return is!

That at least would be something. Its very good we are seeing some great ideas being put into place by Sprint's management as I mentioned earlier, such as the new store concept, the new leasing programs, and others. Yet while they are doing what they can, Softbank ought to do their share too and not just be reported on every week that goes by of yet another way they are trying to sell off Sprint or parts of Sprint.

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Gunther gives a shoutout to S4GRU on lilotimz's Magic Box Blog Post: https://twitter.com/guengott68/status/887380940208656385

Finally someone at Sprint publicly giving positive recognition of S4GRU!

 

And yet, here is another reason why Guenther Ottendorfer is a great Sprint employee and public representative spokesperson for Sprint.

 

Also, Guenther if you're reading this, I'm rooting for you to be a wireless carrier C.E.O. one day!

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