Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[dnicekid]

3 minutes ago, utiz4321 said:

It my missed my point. Sprint's debt is burdensome, to the point that they wont be able to pay it back and continue to invest. Sprint is me, VZW is warren buffet. I thought that was clear but maybe not. 

Lmao!! Since you put it that way. My point is only that even we the members knew sprint wasn’t going to be a overnight turnaround. I thought sprint had pointed the ship and the right direction and was about to sail with 5g. They were finally going to take the lead in using their only advantage..Spectrum/5g. Was it the fact of their prices? Doubt it, I think it was more the name “Sprint” that just didn’t give people confidence. I wish Son would have followed through. All that BS with mini cells and telephone poll heights.... seems sprint tried to many shortcuts and always got caught. Oh well can’t express how disappointed I am in yet another sprint executive.  

[Dkoellerwx]

6 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

So it looks like T-Mobile's network will be the surviving one. I think T-Mobile's network has about 65,000 macro sites. They will build another 10,000 sites if the merger goes through. So they will only keep 10,000 Sprint sites. Now here is my question. Will they use any of the 8T8R antennas? Any of the other network elements like the EPC, enodeB, etc.? Will Dish be interested in some of them? It would let them get a network up and running really quick. Will the cable cos be interested in going into a partnership with Dish to deploy the spectrum on Sprint's old network?

I know that Sprint was doing a lot of work in the SDN/NFV area. Will T-Mobile adopt some of it? 

 

Non-redundant Sprint sites will be kept. and the new T-Mobile intends to keep all of the spectrum. You can bet that Sprint bands will be deployed on T-Mobile sites that don't already have Sprint co-located on the same tower. I have a feeling some T-Mobile sites will go as well, in cases where Sprint has the better position or lease terms on the tower/site.

[RedSpark]

3 hours ago, nexgencpu said:

If you do not think he did his research your sorely mistaken. He basically underestimated Tmobile's continued growth, which ended up being mostly at the expense of Sprint's Customer growth and a great benefit to DT (who themselves underestimated TMO USA) 

He thought, like most in the industry that Tmobile's net adds would have eventually flat lined, which in turn would have made the deal Masa expected, negotiating from a point of power. It all seemed logical. Funny how the complete opposite played out. 

Masa also spent $32 Billion on ARM back in 2016: https://www.recode.net/2016/7/18/12213472/softbank-buying-arm-chip-design

Now it's being used for this: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arm-leveraged-loans/softbank-mulls-5-billion-loan-on-arm-for-shareholder-payday-idUSKCN1GK2F5

Masa also bought Boston Robotics: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/08/softbank-is-buying-robotics-firm-boston-dynamics-and-schaft-from-alphabet/

If only that money could have gone to Sprint instead...

[RedSpark]

Here's something interesting:

T-Mobile would owe Sprint $600 million if it walks away from the deal

As noted by Axios, Sprint and T-Mobile won’t have to pay a breakup fee if regulators from the FCC or Department of Justice manage to kill the proposed merger. However, according to documents the companies filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, T-Mobile would owe Sprint $600 million if the company decides to walk away from the transaction, among other circumstances.

That’s noteworthy considering T-Mobile has credited part of its successes in recent years to the whopping $6 billion breakup fee (which included the transfer of some AWS spectrum) that it obtained from AT&T in 2012 when those companies’ proposed merger fell apart.

.............

Here's that section:

The Business Combination Agreement contains representations and warranties and covenants customary for a transaction of this nature. Sprint and SoftBank, and T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom, are each subject to restrictions on their ability to solicit alternative acquisition proposals and to provide information to, and engage in discussion with, third parties regarding such proposals, except under limited circumstances to permit Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s boards of directors to comply with their respective fiduciary duties.  Subject to certain exceptions, each of the parties has agreed to use its reasonable best efforts to take or cause to be taken actions necessary to consummate the Transactions, including with respect to obtaining required government approvals.  The Business Combination Agreement also contains certain termination rights for both Sprint and T-Mobile.  In the event that T-Mobile terminates the Business Combination Agreement in connection with a failure to satisfy the closing condition related to the specified minimum credit ratings noted above, then in certain circumstances, T-Mobile may be required to pay Sprint $600 million.

.............

There are some other very interesting clauses in the Form 8-K SEC Document that FierceWireless posted:

Executive Severance Letters

Legere Amendment, Sievert Amendment, Carter Amendment

[Arysyn]

23 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Masa also spend $32 Billion on ARM back in 2016: https://www.recode.net/2016/7/18/12213472/softbank-buying-arm-chip-design

Now it's being used for this: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-arm-leveraged-loans/softbank-mulls-5-billion-loan-on-arm-for-shareholder-payday-idUSKCN1GK2F5

Masa also bought Boston Robotics: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/08/softbank-is-buying-robotics-firm-boston-dynamics-and-schaft-from-alphabet/

If only that money could have gone to Sprint instead...

Exactly, RedSpark!

This is why getting out of Son's control is the best thing for Sprint's assets. Unfortunately, Sprint lost its independence when Softbank bought it. That then was really the end of Sprint, not this merger.

Prior to Softbank, Sprint had real network development in mass development. Since Softbank, there's been Pokemon, 50% off, and Magic Boxes. Nothing against the Magic Box and I still think its sad Gunther isn't going to be with the combined company, but the Magic Boxes should have been done along with the same large scale network development being planned for Sprint prior to the Softbank merger.

Now with the new T-Mobile, we will finally see the true glory of band 41's capabilities.

[bigsnake49]

4 hours ago, dnicekid said:

Son just wanted out.  I keep hearing about debt, if Sprint has 34billion and vzw $120bil in debt what’s the problem? Sprint has the spectrum to get better whereas vzw can only buy more then deploy.  My point is in comparison they all have about the same amount of debt in relation to the size of their companies. -Son just wanted out because it’s a long term investment not a quick turnaround in the American market like he thought.

The problem is that Verizon can afford to pay off theirs, Sprint can't. Verizon can pay for 5G deployment out of cash flow, Sprint can't. 

Edited May 1, 2018 by bigsnake49

[nexgencpu]

4 minutes ago, bigsnake49 said:

The problem is that Verizon can afford to pay off theirs, Sprint can't. Verizon can pay for 5G deployment out of cash flow, Sprint can't. 

Fixed 5G yes, not mobile mm wave 5G. It makes zero economic sense, don't think Verizon is in the game to lose money.

[RedSpark]

5 minutes ago, Arysyn said:

Exactly, RedSpark!

This is why getting out of Son's control is the best thing for Sprint's assets. Unfortunately, Sprint lost its independence when Softbank bought it. That then was really the end of Sprint, not this merger.

Prior to Softbank, Sprint had real network development in mass development. Since Softbank, there's been Pokemon, 50% off, and Magic Boxes. Nothing against the Magic Box and I still think its sad Gunther isn't going to be with the combined company, but the Magic Boxes should have been done along with the same large scale network development being planned for Sprint prior to the Softbank merger.

Now with the new T-Mobile, we will finally see the true glory of band 41's capabilities.

Sprint was on its way out of business when Masa bought it. Unfortunately, he kept it in purgatory for years, while he spent billions on other investments like ARM, Boston Robotics, etc.

I don't want this merger to go through. There need to be 4 major carriers to preserve competition.

I think Guenther saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps he knew there wasn't a place for him down the road.

Sprint was capable of doing this without T-Mobile. It had finally hit its stride... and then suddenly this happens.

[bigsnake49]

16 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint was on its way out of business when Masa bought it. Unfortunately, he kept it in purgatory for years, while he spent billions on other investments like ARM, Boston Robotics, etc.

I don't want this merger to go through. There need to be 4 major carriers to preserve competition.

I think Guenther saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps he knew there wasn't a place for him down the road.

Sprint was capable of doing this without T-Mobile. It had finally hit its stride... and then suddenly this happens.

Then encourage the cable cos and Dish to jointly develop a 4G/5G network. Heck they can buy some of Sprint's network assets.

Edited May 1, 2018 by bigsnake49

[cyclone]

Has anyone yet piece together the similarities between Verizon's ideas of fixed 5G wireless and Clearwire's 4G? History is bound to repeat itself (though with some role mix-ups) with people choosing to partake in Sprint's mobile 5G version network over islands of 5G. Verizon will soon realize that it sucks to be on the wrong side of history.

[greenbastard]

2 hours ago, dnicekid said:

Let’s not. Let’s just keep it simple. Son was hoping for a quick turnaround... 

No. He bought Sprint with the intention of merging it with T-Mobile. That was the goal from the very beginning. He even said so himself.

[Arysyn]

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint was on its way out of business when Masa bought it. Unfortunately, he kept it in purgatory for years, while he spent billions on other investments like ARM, Boston Robotics, etc.

I don't want this merger to go through. There need to be 4 major carriers to preserve competition.

I think Guenther saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps he knew there wasn't a place for him down the road.

Sprint was capable of doing this without T-Mobile. It had finally hit its stride... and then suddenly this happens.

After the T-Mobile/Sprint merger goes through, I can see Charter and Comcast merging with Verizon. There still is a chance Verizon could go after Dish, which is something I've been looking towards since the AT&T/Directv merger. However, that may prevent a merger with Charter and Comcast, who could become an actual 4th carrier, if they are unable to secure Verizon - which likely could happen if Dish gets acquired by Verizon.

I'm hoping Verizon goes with Charter and Comcast though. I'd much rather see the New T-Mobile get Dish for the added 600mhz spectrum, the AWS-4 spectrum, and merge Slingtv in with Layer3. With Dish and all this spectrum, they can have the capacity possibly for true unlimited data without limits, or possibly to 500gb to 1tb.

[greenbastard]

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

Then encourage the cable cos and Dish to jointly develop a 4G/5G network. Heck they can buy some of Sprint's network assets.

Exactly. Dish and Comcast are sitting on some very valuable low band and mid band spectrum.

[dnicekid]

1 hour ago, nexgencpu said:

Fixed 5G yes, not mobile mm wave 5G. It makes zero economic sense, don't think Verizon is in the game to lose money.

Which my previous point was vague,  but this is what I was alluding too. Everyone is going to take on more but rolling out 5g, fixing the network sprint could have made huge gains and $$$. The others aren’t in a good position to even offer Mobile 5g. Sprint  would be a giant step ahead for once if they could have gotten over this last bump. 

[dro1984]

Reoccurring theme:   "Should of", "Could of", "Would of"....   for many, many years and many CEO's/Chairman.   The answer is Sprint didn't.   Time to turn the page.  Hopefully new company and changing times will put all that valuable spectrum to use.   

[Paynefanbro]

13 minutes ago, dro1984 said:

Reoccurring theme:   "Should of", "Could of", "Would of"....   for many, many years and many CEO's/Chairman.   The answer is Sprint didn't.   Time to turn the page.  Hopefully new company and changing times will put all that valuable spectrum to use.   

*Should have, Could have, Would have

[IamMrFamous07]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Sprint was on its way out of business when Masa bought it. Unfortunately, he kept it in purgatory for years, while he spent billions on other investments like ARM, Boston Robotics, etc.

I don't want this merger to go through. There need to be 4 major carriers to preserve competition.

I think Guenther saw the writing on the wall. Perhaps he knew there wasn't a place for him down the road.

Sprint was capable of doing this without T-Mobile. It had finally hit its stride... and then suddenly this happens.

I want the merger to go through because I’m tired of the lack of commitments from Masa Son. If it doesn’t go through I can see it now “Sprint is recommitted to have the best Network in 2-3 years” and within that time frame Son will try to sell Sprint off. It’s a never ending cycle that’s been going on 4-5. This merger will put all that nonsense to rest.

 

if they want this merger to go through then NewCo needs to “create” the 4th competitor. They can offer Dish Network the sites they are decommissioning, NewCo can put those antennas on existing sites they plan to keep.

im not sure if Dish’s spectrum is capable of Mobile 5G but if it is then it’s a plus because then they are creating the second “mobile 5G” carrier 

 

 

[Arysyn]

2 hours ago, IamMrFamous07 said:

I want the merger to go through because I’m tired of the lack of commitments from Masa Son. If it doesn’t go through I can see it now “Sprint is recommitted to have the best Network in 2-3 years” and within that time frame Son will try to sell Sprint off. It’s a never ending cycle that’s been going on 4-5. This merger will put all that nonsense to rest.

 

if they want this merger to go through then NewCo needs to “create” the 4th competitor. They can offer Dish Network the sites they are decommissioning, NewCo can put those antennas on existing sites they plan to keep.

im not sure if Dish’s spectrum is capable of Mobile 5G but if it is then it’s a plus because then they are creating the second “mobile 5G” carrier 

 

 

Good idea regarding Dish as the 4th carrier, though even better I think would be if The New T-Mobile were to get Dish, then merge all of the prepaid carriers into a Dish mvno to compete against Xfinity mobile.

[JossMan]

Gonna be a lot of empty racks on cell sites, *cough* *cough* Dish Network. 

[IamMrFamous07]

12 minutes ago, Arysyn said:

Good idea regarding Dish as the 4th carrier, though even better I think would be if The New T-Mobile were to get Dish, then merge all of the prepaid carriers into a Dish mvno to compete against Xfinity mobile.

Lol I don’t think New T-Mobile will be able to get Dish at this point. I can see T-Mobile going after Dish if the merger doesn’t go through.

Who knows Verizon might buy Dish 

[Arysyn]

15 minutes ago, IamMrFamous07 said:

Lol I don’t think New T-Mobile will be able to get Dish at this point. I can see T-Mobile going after Dish if the merger doesn’t go through.

Who knows Verizon might buy Dish 

Verizon very well might buy Dish, I don't doubt that - but I think Charter and Comcast are going to go after Verizon first. If they do and they get Verizon, all that leaves T-Mobile with in terms of television broadcast service is Layer3, no where near as strong as AT&T/Directv and the possible Charter/Comcast/Verizon combination. Getting Dish would level it out for T-Mobile.

[JThorson]

7 hours ago, Arysyn said:

After the T-Mobile/Sprint merger goes through

 

We don't know it will actually go through...

[utiz4321]

24 minutes ago, JThorson said:

We don't know it will actually go through...

If it doesnt 5g is really going to suck. 

[Arysyn]

25 minutes ago, JThorson said:

We don't know it will actually go through...

Well, if it does. I know I'm hoping it will.

[JThorson]

51 minutes ago, Arysyn said:

Well, if it does. I know I'm hoping it will.

I knew what you meant, just giving you a hard time...

 

I know you would like to see this happen. I would be surprised though if both the DOJ and FCC agree to this. Of course, time will tell.