General Investing Forum

[Mr.Nuke]

^^ This is what shareholders care about.

Which for all intents and purposes doesn't apply to Sprint.

[DanielB]

LOL. Yes it does. As long as they are a publicly listed company, it does. Softbank is the majority shareholder, not the only shareholder...you would do well not to confuse those two points.

[MacinJosh]

LOL. Yes it does. As long as they are a publicly listed company, it does. Softbank is the majority shareholder, not the only shareholder...you would do well not to confuse those two points.

Actually, it doesn't really. SoftBank owns over 80% of the shares, and the less than 20% left don't really get much of a say. Sorry to say that, but it is what it is.

 

 

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[foofoo982]

To me, SoftBank being the majority shareholder gives all the more reason for cuts to bring their investment, Sprint, back to positive FCF. They've already stated that they want to lower their fixed, operational, and finance costs. They are a publicly traded company, and have to mind their own shareholders on top of their investment goals. I would imagine if projects are bringing in revenue at a low cost that they won't be cut, but if the costs are not able to be controlled well that you would see the project scaled back region by region.

[Rocket87]

At this point, it simply makes sense for Softbank to purchase the remainder of Sprint that they do not yet already own. Steps to immediately follow to significantly cut operating costs would include:

 

• Closure of the Direct2You program
• Closure of "SprintShacks" (at least the Sprint portion) - what I'm hearing from several "Shack" managers is that they're just not bringing in any Sprint business
• Less lenient customer service approach - I was in a corporate store the other day while a ghetto Sprint customer berated the staff and other waiting customers for over an hour while he waited...come to find out, all because he quit paying his bill and Sprint shut off his service. ENOUGH! Not every customer is a good customer and Sprint needs to start adopting policies that drive these customers away. They take up too much time and actually contribute to a negative brand image. This guy was on the phone with Sprint Care when I left - tying up yet another Sprint channel. IMHO, his account should be cut off permanently and he should not be approved for another postpaid account.
• Rename Sprint to Softbank USA and be done with it - the brand is beyond salvaging.

I think the new CFO gets all of this, and much more...in fact, I think that's what's driving the $2 - $2.5 bil reduction in OE - I can't say it enough, that's the greatest move they've ever made (if it comes to fruition).

 

At this point, Sprint needs to spend more on network development and marketing - that's it. They just don't have money to spare on other things until they are once again (CONSISTENTLY) cash-flow positive! I'm excited that their current management team understands this. Lastly, they cannot be afraid to fire retail-level and CS staff if performance is not up to par...this is vital.

While your sprint shack comments are true to some extent its not true everywhere. The indy shack market finishes 1 or 2 every month in the country with 2-300% of our activation goal. Ive never made so much commission at sprint before this. Also many under performing shacks are staffed by third parties which sprint is kicking out starting Nov 1st and switching to corp run. There are at least 10 in indiana this happening to that i know of.

 

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[MacinJosh]

Also many under performing shacks are staffed by third parties which sprint is kicking out starting Nov 1st and switching to corp run. There are at least 10 in indiana this happening to that i know of.

 

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They did it September 1st in Pahrump, and the corp manager they brought in said Sprint did it a month earlier than they were told the transition was supposed to happen.

 

 

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[Fraydog]

While your sprint shack comments are true to some extent its not true everywhere. The indy shack market finishes 1 or 2 every month in the country with 2-300% of our activation goal. Ive never made so much commission at sprint before this. Also many under performing shacks are staffed by third parties which sprint is kicking out starting Nov 1st and switching to corp run. There are at least 10 in indiana this happening to that i know of.

 

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It helps Indy has really good network performance.

[Mr.Nuke]

LOL. Yes it does. As long as they are a publicly listed company, it does. Softbank is the majority shareholder, not the only shareholder...you would do well not to confuse those two points.

No lol, and I'm not confusing anything. Yes Sprint is still a publicly traded company. And no Softbank isn't just the majority shareholder they own approximately 83% of the company. What the other 17% of the shareholders care about is of little consequence to Sprint management or Softbank's ownership interests.

 

This isn't a case of many publicly traded companies with such diluted ownership where an activist investor can come in buy 5% and demand several seats on the board of directors. I think you'd be wise not to conflate those two points.

[DanielB]

You guys confuse investing concepts. I do it professionally, how about you?

[nick]

You guys confuse investing concepts. I do it professionally, how about you?

well I am not a professional however...

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/s/ownership-summary

soft bank holds                                 3,250,596,924 shares  or roughly %83 of total out standing shares           09/15/2015

to me that apears to be ownership, and all the "little guys" are just along for the ride

          

[Mr.Nuke]

You guys confuse investing concepts. I do it professionally

It isn't showing... You've done nothing to refute my point.

[tommym65]

well I am not a professional however...

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/s/ownership-summary

soft bank holds                                 3,250,596,924 shares  or roughly %83 of total out standing shares           09/15/2015

to me that apears to be ownership, and all the "little guys" are just along for the ride

          

 

The minority stakeholders have clearly defined rights and protections.  While Softbank effectively controls Sprint, they cannot take deliberate actions to destroy or damage the value of the minority's stock.  At some point, they can offer to buy all the minority shares, but in the meantime, there are significant financial and regulatory hoops they must continually jump through to avoid such damage/destruction.

[Mr.Nuke]

I don't expect a lot of retail cuts. Retail cuts have to be applied in a precision manner because if done wrong, they limit the avenues that growth can come from.

Especially for a company that is still overall losing post-paid subscribers. Any significant retail cuts would be asinine, essentially waiving the white flag. Getting the Sprint Shack's on the cheap out of bankruptcy was probably one of Marcelo's most impressive moves thus far.

[Arysyn]

Especially for a company that is still overall losing post-paid subscribers. Any significant retail cuts would be asinine, essentially waiving the white flag. Getting the Sprint Shack's on the cheap out of bankruptcy was probably one of Marcelo's most impressive moves thus far.

I have a different opinion about Sprint's retail, other than I agree about Sprint Shack being a good idea. I've found in my experiences, the people working at Sprint Shacks are far nicer and more helpful than those at the Sprint corporate stores I have been to. Also, while I haven't read any opinions from others online about their experiences at Sprint Shacks, many, many people complain about Sprint's corporate retail stores being very poorly staffed, which of course from my experiences, I fully agree with them.

 

In my opinion, Sprint's retail strength is these Sprint Shack stores, online shopping, and over-the-phone ordering. I believe if Sprint were to increase the nature of the Sprint Shack stores to be something of a larger size and somehow implementing their online and telephone ordering processes with Sprint Shack stores to streamline inventory, they could have reason to close many corporate retail stores in favor of the Sprint Shack concept, in turn saving alot if money and sparing alot of the bad reputation the corporate retail stores seem to have.

 

Since Sprint Shack employees are trained to sell more than Sprint products, especially items that have value in various connectivity issues which often customers have questions Seeking helpful answers about, those employees generally seem to care more than those at Sprint corporate retail stores do, though not all. Also, I'm certainly not saying all employees at Sprint corporate retail stores are mean and uncaring, just relaying what I've experienced and others have.

[Mercurial1]

The Sprint employees at Radio Shack are not trained to sell anything other than Sprint products and services

 

 

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[mozamcrew]

Sprint really needs to take a hard look at how all of its locations perform in terms of customer satisfaction, retention, sales, and from what areas they draw customers. There seems to be a great deal of variation in the quality of service, even among just the corporate stores, let alone partners and resellers. Then they can take a more targeted approach to which stores to close. They really need to go through market by market and take a good look, and not just randomly close places. With all the new Sprint shacks, they probably have over-expanded in some areas. If the Sprint shack is the better performing store, maybe close a poorly performing store near it. This kind of exercise is which each market should have a manger that oversees customer service within that area. That manager should also have direct feedback on network work being done in that market.

[DanielB]

The key to investing is to remain emotionally detached from your investment. I am a raving Sprint fan as a customer. But my reality as a customer of Sprint is very different from my reality as an investor in Sprint.

[Jones]

The key to investing is to remain emotionally detached from your investment. I am a raving Sprint fan as a customer. But my reality as a customer of Sprint is very different from my reality as an investor in Sprint.

I agree!

One question, as this is an investing forum, what happens to the money invested when a company's stock drops? Like the Walton's lost 9 some billion dollars today...where did that money go, does it disappear or is it conserved but transferred to another owner. And if so who?

I have a science background and think of things in terms of conservation of matter - which probably doesn't apply to Wall Street

[JimBob]

I agree!

One question, as this is an investing forum, what happens to the money invested when a company's stock drops? Like the Walton's lost 9 some billion dollars today...where did that money go, does it disappear or is it conserved but transferred to another owner. And if so who?

I have a science background and think of things in terms of conservation of matter - which probably doesn't apply to Wall Street

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unrealizedloss.asp

[DanielB]

I agree!

One question, as this is an investing forum, what happens to the money invested when a company's stock drops? Like the Walton's lost 9 some billion dollars today...where did that money go, does it disappear or is it conserved but transferred to another owner. And if so who?

I have a science background and think of things in terms of conservation of matter - which probably doesn't apply to Wall Street

 

It essentially disappears! Think of it as buying a new car for $20,000 that's worth $20,000. The next year, the value falls to $15,000 - which means if you sold it, you would only receive $15,000 back in exchange for your initial $20,000 "investment."

 

The difference between cars (and other depreciating assets) and the stock market is that stocks can move up and down in value from day to day - most other assets do not, and some (like cars) fall in value over time, rarely rising again until 30+ years into the future and almost never recouping their original value.

[JimBob]

Sprint stock has jumped over 6% today as of this writing.  What's up? 

[Rocket87]

I was wondering the same thing. I think people are taking marcelo talking crap about ATTs customer loses to mean Sprint will have positive numbers.

 

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[Jones]

So Apple made a quarterly profit of $51 billion. I know it flies in the face of the valley culture but I'd like to see them do something akin to the oil baron days. Like build a huge monument, buy a politician or two, or maybe donate one quarter's profit to sprint.

[Ascertion]

Sprint stock has jumped over 6% today as of this writing. What's up?

Up another ~3% this morning, sitting at $5.05.

 

Not bad.

 

EDIT: 4% up now.

[mittenmitten]

Sprint rallies almost like clockwork in the days before their quarterly results, then plummets after. Sprint will post good news but it's never good enough to sustain their gains.