Dish Network proposes merger with Sprint Nextel for $25.5 billion

[WiWavelength]

I'm in the car. I'll be able to make it to KC in six hours after driving across the blackness we call "rural Missouri."

 

By that time, I will likely have killed everyone in the police station and escaped, considering what a perceived menace to society my spectrum analyzer and I are.

 

AJ

[Josh]

As much as it seems like everyone hates Dish, I am interested in their spectrum. I know that it is a long shot, but as far as I know their AWS-2 band is close to sprint's PCS-G block, with only the possible upcoming PCS-H block separating them. I do not like charlie as a business man, because I do not think he will be trying to make sprint into the best company he can, he will only be looking to try and make as much profit as possible. The "tripple play" idea is stupid for those who are not in the middle of the country, which is sprint's weakest point. Now after Clearwire is fully deployed in all cities and towns across the country, the double play would make sense, but I would never expect a significant amount of people to put a dish on their roof to get shitty service. If you are out in the rural areas, sometimes cable TV is not available, but also sprint service is typically less available as well. (in my experiences, please do not post only to argue this point, as it is different in all areas)

 

I would be interested in dealing with dish to deploy LTE on their spectrum, as long as it includes sprint customers ability to use the spectrum as native. I believe that sprint/softbank will be in a better position to participate in spectrum auctions in the future, meaning that they could buy 600Mhz spectrum.

[4GHoward]

Sprint seems to be more interested in SoftBank than DISH after filing this opposition today.

 

http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022287382

[JohnHovah]

I am only 35 miles away. I had my ringer silenced and must have missed the call to join the committee. Damn.

 

 

AJ

 

I'm still thinking we need to have that impromptu housewarming party at Masayoshi's new home.

[supert0nes]

Sprint seems to be more interested in SoftBank than DISH after filing this opposition today.

 

http://apps.fcc.gov/...w?id=7022287382

 

That opposition was so well written and smacks Dish down hard. I had a large grin as I read through it.

[JeffDTD]

I'm still thinking we need to have that impromptu housewarming party at Masayoshi's new home.

 

I'll bring the spinach dip... and a big dart board with you know who's face on it.

[jonathanm1978]

From that letter filed with the FCC, i sense that Sprint has a little penned resentment towards DISH ...maybe some hard feelings from them trying to get Clearwire when Sprint obviously was the first one to that party....

Either way, just seems like they are laughing at Charlie ...

[JeffDTD]

Well of course there is resentment. Sprint courted atleast 5 potential suitors/strategic partners before settling on softbank. Dish was indeed one of those partners. When you are working through multiple offers and you say to them "give me your best and final offer" and the quote response is " company z would require a significant period of due diligence before considering any business combination with Sprint and that he believed that Sprint's then existing market price was in excess of his view of Sprint's fundamental value" OF COURSE it pisses you off when company z comes barrelling in at the 11th hour with zero regard for your selection process or your governance and tries to publically shame you into picking them instead. Charlie under estimated sprints capacity to succeed and thats his fault and no one elses. He wanted them to gravel at his throne and be able to jerk them around for months on end while he picked them apart and dangled his money at them. He misses his chance. Oh, poo poo Charlie. Poo poo.

 

And whos to say that charlie wouldnt try to renegotiate his offer after he chased softbank away? Hes a mean poker player.....basically "give me what I want or im out". Thats absolutely his strategy in trying to stop fcc review. With softbank fcc approval, he could end up back in a multiple offer scenario. Without it, he has sprint over a barrel and ability to spew more vitriol around about softbank.

 

Sidenote: I work for a corporation that handles the marketing and disposition of bank owned residential real estate in 30+ states. Cry baby buyers who lose in multiple offer situations and throw tantrums are all too common and a real pain in my ass.... all you can tell them is " you had your chance, you lost. We'll call you if the buyer who won doesnt close". The people who throw fits are almost always the people who had the worst offer of all.

[S4GRU]

Well of course there is resentment. Sprint courted atleast 5 potential suitors/strategic partners before settling on softbank. Dish was indeed one of those partners. When you are working through multiple offers and you say to them "give me your best and final offer" and the quote response is " company z would require a significant period of due diligence before considering any business combination with Sprint and that he believed that Sprint's then existing market price was in excess of his view of Sprint's fundamental value" OF COURSE it pisses you off when company z comes barrelling in at the 11th hour with zero regard for your selection process or your governance and tries to publically shame you into picking them instead. Charlie under estimated sprints capacity to succeed and thats his fault and no one elses. He wanted them to gravel at his throne and be able to jerk them around for months on end while he picked them apart and dangled his money at them. He misses his chance. Oh, poo poo Charlie. Poo poo.

 

And whos to say that charlie wouldnt try to renegotiate his offer after he chased softbank away? Hes a mean poker player.....basically "give me what I want or im out". Thats absolutely his strategy in trying to stop fcc review. With softbank fcc approval, he could end up back in a multiple offer scenario. Without it, he has sprint over a barrel and ability to spew more vitriol around about softbank.

 

Sidenote: I work for a corporation that handles the marketing and disposition of bank owned residential real estate in 30+ states. Cry baby buyers who lose in multiple offer situations and throw tantrums are all too common and a real pain in my ass.... all you can tell them is " you had your chance, you lost. We'll call you if the buyer who won doesnt close". The people who throw fits are almost always the people who had the worst offer of all.

 

I manage government contract procurement and bidding...I know exactly what you're saying here. It's one of the worst parts of my job.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

 

 

[supert0nes]

I feel I can go back to my opinion that either Sprint or AT&T will buy Dish's spectrum in the next couple years for a greatly reduced price.

[Fraydog]

I want to see Dish and AT&T together for the lulz.

[bigsnake49]

I want to see Dish and AT&T together for the lulz.

 

Ergen wants to be running the show and that won't happen anytime soon. I have said it and I will say it now, I want him to have Clearwire under the proviso that Sprint and T-Mobile are allowed to merge. A combined Sprint/T-Mobile/Metro will have 96M customers and plenty of spectrum, even without BRS spectrum. Their spectrum needs would be in the 600Mhz band.

[jefbal99]

Ergen wants to be running the show and that won't happen anytime soon. I have said it and I will say it now, I want him to have Clearwire under the proviso that Sprint and T-Mobile are allowed to merge. A combined Sprint/T-Mobile/Metro will have 96M customers and plenty of spectrum, even without BRS spectrum. Their spectrum needs would be in the 600Mhz band.

 

Merging those two networks would be on the lines of merging Sprint and Nextel. Completely different technologies and spectrum, maybe in 5 years once NV is done and Tmobile is stable.

[bigsnake49]

Merging those two networks would be on the lines of merging Sprint and Nextel. Completely different technologies and spectrum, maybe in 5 years once NV is done and Tmobile is stable.

 

Nowhere near, because you have LTE which is the common data technology element and VOLTE which is the unifying voice framework. They don't have to reband, they don't have to buy any subsidiaries and they don't a clash of cultures.

[jefbal99]

Nowhere near, because you have LTE which is the common data technology element and VOLTE which is the unifying voice framework. They don't have to reband, they don't have to buy any subsidiaries and they don't a clash of cultures.

 

VoLTE is still years from replacing CDMA 1x in Sprints network. As we all know here 1x signal is usable further tha EvDo which is usable further than LTE. The airlink isn't as robust and you can't lose all those fringe users. I'd be shocked if Sprint turns off CDMA 1x before 2020. SMR is going to help, but it is not a magic bullet and there is only 5x5mhz. You get additional spectrum in the sub 1Ghz and VoLTE becomes more of an option.

 

You have handsets on each carrier that don't support the others frequencies and PCS is the only common spectrum. The new company would be forced to divest and it would probably end up being AWS or if they got to keep all the PCS/AWS, then they'd be blocked from bidding in the 600Mhz auction. Sprint has but itself in bed with the BRS spectrum and is not giving it up.

 

I used to think a SprinT-mobile merger would be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I was convinced by the great minds here about how much work it would really take. By the time a single LTE network would be in place, it would be like Sprint's current legacy network.

[jefbal99]

Actually, I see one way to make this work (and a variant of this may have been suggested here)...

 

Step 1: Take all of T-Mobile's PCS network and merge it into Sprint's and offer current T-Mobile customers with AWS only devices select new PCS based devices free (like for like upgrades). TM customers with 1900Mhz devices that can support the G block will be re-certified to work on Sprint's core network. Immediately shut down all GSM/WCDMA/non-CDMA and create multiple 5x5 LTE carriers in the PCS spectrum. A 5x5 FD LTE carrier is more than enough for current mobile device usage and allows more carriers for redundancy.

 

Step 2: Spin the rest of T-Mobile into a subsidiary that runs what is left of it's network on AWS spectrum, keep the no contract, budget carrier, etc. Staring spinning this spectrum to at&t/Verizon in a deal that they won't oppose Sprint/rural carriers getting a significant chunk of 600Mhz and/or LTE roaming agreements. They get the customers in that area too. Eventually the problem goes away as spectrum is purchased.

 

Step 3: NV 2017 Build the ever living shit out the 600Mhz spectrum, allow roaming/spectrum sharing with rural partner carriers (Sprint always owns the Spectrum, but $0 leases it to the other companies to build out the physical network to Sprint standards). Sprint gets native usage of the network too.

[WiWavelength]

Step 3: NV 2017 Build the ever living shit out the 600Mhz spectrum, allow roaming/spectrum sharing with rural partner carriers (Sprint always owns the Spectrum, but $0 leases it to the other companies to build out the physical network to Sprint standards). Sprint gets native usage of the network too.

 

What rural partners? They are almost all gone, engulfed and devoured by the Twin Bells. Or they are waiting to be cannibalized after accepting VZW's Trojan horse enticement of the LTE in Rural America program.

 

AJ

[jefbal99]

What rural partners? They are almost all gone, engulfed and devoured by the Twin Bells. Or they are waiting to be cannibalized after accepting VZW's Trojan horse enticement of the LTE in Rural America program.

 

AJ

 

I'm not sure who is all in it, but isn't Sprint and T-Mobile in the CCA (Carrier Association) basically those opposing Verizon and at&t?

[bigsnake49]

From gigaom (with Tim Farrar as guest columnist)

 

http://gigaom.com/2013/04/21/why-dish-should-be-negotiating-with-clearwire-rather-than-bidding-for-sprint/

 

..........

 

 

The greater flexibility DISH has in realizing its mobile video plans vs its fixed broadband ones suggests it may be far more important for it to acquire some of Clearwire’s spectrum than to buy all of Sprint right now. After all, if Deutsche Telekom is willing to strike a deal with DISH after completing its merger with MetroPCS, then Ergen could deploy the 2.5GHz Clearwire spectrum on T-Mobile’s network.

So the question is, might SoftBank agree to sell part of Clearwire’s spectrum to DISH, in exchange for DISH agreeing to withdraw its bid for Sprint? That would certainly be logical, but with two billionaires’ egos at stake, it’s never a given that the most rational outcome will prevail.

[kn4ds]

Interesting...

 

"Multiple sources say Sprint has accepted an offer from Dish Network to acquire the wireless telecommunications giant for $25.5 billion, with $17.3 billion payable in cash and the remaining $8.2 billion in stock.

 

Sprint employees were informed of the agreement via non-disclosure paperwork earlier this afternoon, but the deal still is subject to FCC approval."

 

From http://motorsports-soapbox.blogspot.com/2013/04/breaking-news-sprint-accepts.html

 

I don't see anything else about Sprint accepting the DISH offer, though, anywhere else.

[MagnusOchncap]

That... is just nuts. Is Dave Moody a reliable source? =P

[kn4ds]

Usually, Dave Moody is spot-on. His sources go pretty deep - with that said, they're mostly motorsports sources, and the only connection here is that Sprint current is the title sponsor for the top tier NASCAR racing series.

 

Thing is, I see where Sprint announced just today they'd formed the special committee to review the offer - but that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't formed in the past couple of weeks, and made a recommendation already.

 

The news could move pretty fast on this one - or it could be that the "sources" got it a bit mixed up in relation to the announcement of the special committee. <shrug> Will have to wait and see, as always, especially when Charlie Ergen's involved (and I say that as a DISH customer since 1998)

[jefbal99]

Interesting...

 

"Multiple sources say Sprint has accepted an offer from Dish Network to acquire the wireless telecommunications giant for $25.5 billion, with $17.3 billion payable in cash and the remaining $8.2 billion in stock.

 

Sprint employees were informed of the agreement via non-disclosure paperwork earlier this afternoon, but the deal still is subject to FCC approval."

 

From http://motorsports-s...nt-accepts.html

 

I don't see anything else about Sprint accepting the DISH offer, though, anywhere else.

 

Did you see his own comment about 10 minutes later?

 

Officially, Sprint said on Monday that its board had formed a special committee of independent directors to review Dish Network's offer.

 

Dear {insert favorite/random deity} i hope this report is 100% false and jumping the gun. Holy christ, please be wrong...

 

$45b in debt right off the bat, trying to finish a network rebuild, then the Dish crap.

 

Grr...

[kn4ds]

Did you see his own comment about 10 minutes later?

That was actually my comment.

 

Edit to add... Moody's now updated his blog post to include today's "official" announcement from Sprint.

Edited April 22, 2013 by kn4ds

[MagnusOchncap]

Yea, I personally think that Sprint would be much better served with the backing of SoftBank and its CEO, who have the experience to grow Sprint into a much stronger company.

 

Charlie Ergen's idea of using spectrum for video transmission is just insane. I don't understand that at all. Wouldn't you rather have even more LTE-powered spectrum that can serve any kind of data requested (including video)?

 

And I have yet to understand the idea that Dish and Sprint will gain synergies from combining customers. They cannot suddenly sell their 14 million satellite TV subscribers on phone service; normal people have two year contracts from the big four. And they will not be able to move their 50 million Sprint customers over to DISH; many of those subs will be on cable and not want to move to satellite (or on a one or two year contract with DirecTV or the local cable company).