Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[RedSpark]

T-Mobile executives to address Sprint town hall Friday

And the letter Sprint’s CEO Michel Combes sent out: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/101830/000119312518287740/d627792d425.htm

Ugh.

[RAvirani]

I hear Amphenol may be coming out with an antenna very similar to this one, but with 600 MHz support:  

https://amphenol-antennas.com/product/5980470p/

This antenna would be able to run 2x2 L600, 2x2 L700, 2x2 L800, 4x4 L1900 and 4x4 L2100 out of one panel.  Additionally, the antenna isn't enormous (105.6in x 17in x 6.9in) - it's only slightly larger than the KMW 16-port triband antennas Sprint is deploying today (84.9in x 21in x 6.1in).  The antennas gain, beamwidth and overall performance is also quite good - significantly better than that of the 16-port triband antennas Sprint is deploying today and comparable to that of the 10-port 800/2500 antennas Sprint is deploying today.

These antennas, 64T64R BRS/EBS antennas and higher order MIMO 600 MHz antennas (for NR600) is probably what we'll see deployed following the merger.

 

[RedSpark]

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/101830/000119312518302090/d624553d425.htm

Here’s the Full Transcript of Sprint’s Town Hall meeting with T-Mobile Executives in which the Merger was discussed.

It’s hard for me to see Sprint lose its brand identity to T-Mobile. It’ll be like AT&T and Cingular. There was some orange in the branding for a little while, but it disappeared over time. That’s what will happen with Sprint. Things will ultimately be done the T-Mobile way...

Not what Masa or Marcelo had in mind I’m guessing.

[dkyeager]

11 hours ago, RedSpark said:

It’s hard for me to see Sprint lose its brand identity to T-Mobile. It’ll be like AT&T and Cingular. There was some orange in the branding for a little while, but it disappeared over time. That’s what will happen with Sprint. Things will ultimately be done the T-Mobile way...

Not what Masa or Marcelo had in mind I’m guessing.

I can definitely see T-Mobile using the word, for example "T-Mobile sprints ahead with high speed 5G".  There is no doubt T-Mobile has the better brand name and Masa did definitely see that.  The question is whether Sprint can be used as a sub brand at a later date. My understanding is they will be integrated on a market by market basis as the networks are integrated, which will take several years.

[RedSpark]

3 hours ago, dkyeager said:

I can definitely see T-Mobile using the word, for example "T-Mobile sprints ahead with high speed 5G".  There is no doubt T-Mobile has the better brand name and Masa did definitely see that.  The question is whether Sprint can be used as a sub brand at a later date. My understanding is they will be integrated on a market by market basis as the networks are integrated, which will take several years.

Yeah. I think T-Mobile will give some recognition to Sprint's network initially as was discussed in the Town Hall meeting, but that recognition will dissipate over time. As the majority owner, T-Mobile will ultimately be the one calling the shots. Sprint's people will be involved to the degree that they have a greater understanding of Sprint's network than the T-Mobile people. Once the networks are integrated however, I'm thinking that Sprint's people will have to prove their greater value to the merged company in order to stay there.

Masa never gave Sprint the capital it needed to effectively compete with the other carriers... to the point where Sprint didn't even participate in the 600 MHz auction because it didn't have the money, but tried to write it off as "Spectrum of the Past"... Funny how it's now "Spectrum of the Future" when combined with 2.5 GHz when we're talking about a Merger.

Instead, Masa threw countless billions at ARM, Boston Robotics and Uber.... Oh well. One of my favorite quotes: "If we don't change direction soon, we'll wind up where we're going."

And here we are....

[tybo31316]

I think that T-Mobile is saying all the right things to get this merger to go through. Also to keep the employees of both companies at ease. As soon as this merger is complete I believe the T-Mobile will kill off the Sprint name and it’s prepaid brand and it should. T-Mobile is also turning into a carrier again with their 36mo financing. I get they are trying to keep monthly device cost down because of the increase full retail pricing by Apple and Samsung.

[runagun]

3 hours ago, RedSpark said:

Yeah. I think T-Mobile will give some recognition to Sprint's network initially as was discussed in the Town Hall meeting, but that recognition will dissipate over time. As the majority owner, T-Mobile will ultimately be the one calling the shots. Sprint's people will be involved to the degree that they have a greater understanding of Sprint's network than the T-Mobile people. Once the networks are integrated however, I'm thinking that Sprint's people will have to prove their greater value to the merged company in order to stay there.

Masa never gave Sprint the capital it needed to effectively compete with the other carriers... to the point where Sprint didn't even participate in the 600 MHz auction because it didn't have the money, but tried to write it off as "Spectrum of the Past"... Funny how it's now "Spectrum of the Future" when combined with 2.5 GHz when we're talking about a Merger.

Instead, Masa threw countless billions at ARM, Boston Robotics and Uber.... Oh well. One of my favorite quotes: "If we don't change direction soon, we'll wind up where we're going."

And here we are....

Honestly, be happy Masa bought Sprint and kept it alive.  He gave the company hope.  The company is now more nimble and somewhat has a direction. If it wasn't for him it'd probably be parts for the other carriers.  

[RedSpark]

2 hours ago, runagun said:

Honestly, be happy Masa bought Sprint and kept it alive.  He gave the company hope.  The company is now more nimble and somewhat has a direction. If it wasn't for him it'd probably be parts for the other carriers.  

I’m happy Masa bought Sprint.

I’m not happy that he refused to invest capital in it to the degree that it negatively impacted the value of his actual investment... and mine as a shareholder.

As a result: Sprint is becoming part of T-Mobile: “New T-Mobile”. T-Mobile is not becoming part of Sprint.

If this merger doesn’t go through, Masa will have to open the spigot on funding Sprint unless he can find another suitable merger partner... which could offer a worse merger deal than T-Mobile.

Or he could let things go the way they are and everything that Sprint said to the FCC as far as its smaller coverage area, limited 5G deployment and shrinking competitive scale (vs the competition) will come to be.

[utiz4321]

10 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I’m happy Masa bought Sprint.

I’m not happy that he refused to invest capital in it to the degree that it negatively impacted the value of his actual investment... and mine as a shareholder.

As a result: Sprint is becoming part of T-Mobile: “New T-Mobile”. T-Mobile is not becoming part of Sprint.

If this merger doesn’t go through, Masa will have to open the spigot on funding Sprint unless he can find another suitable merger partner... which could offer a worse merger deal than T-Mobile.

Or he could let things go the way they are and everything that Sprint said to the FCC as far as its smaller coverage area, limited 5G deployment and shrinking competitive scale (vs the competition) will come to be.

It wasn't that he didn't invest the capital is was that he couldn't. The convents with the banks he got the loans from to buy sprint would allow him to sink more money into sprint with out paying them off first. 

[RedSpark]

11 minutes ago, utiz4321 said:

It wasn't that he didn't invest the capital is was that he couldn't. The convents with the banks he got the loans from to buy sprint would allow him to sink more money into sprint with out paying them off first. 

Couldn’t he pay off those loans instead of investing in ARM, Uber and Boston Dynamics (called it Boston Robotics by mistake earlier)?

[utiz4321]

Just now, RedSpark said:

Couldn’t he pay off those loans instead of investing in ARM, Uber and Boston Dynamics (called it Boston Robotics by mistake earlier)?

Maybe. But he isn't a charity. There was better use for his capital than investing in a Sprint with T-mobile. 

[BlueAngel]

50 minutes ago, RedSpark said:

I’m happy Masa bought Sprint.

I’m not happy that he refused to invest capital in it to the degree that it negatively impacted the value of his actual investment... and mine as a shareholder.

As a result: Sprint is becoming part of T-Mobile: “New T-Mobile”. T-Mobile is not becoming part of Sprint.

If this merger doesn’t go through, Masa will have to open the spigot on funding Sprint unless he can find another suitable merger partner... which could offer a worse merger deal than T-Mobile.

Or he could let things go the way they are and everything that Sprint said to the FCC as far as its smaller coverage area, limited 5G deployment and shrinking competitive scale (vs the competition) will come to be.

If the merger doesn't go through I'm out, not gonna be a good network to be on considering the competition. Would love to see B41 at it's prime, it's perfect for 5G but time will tell.

[runagun]

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

I’m happy Masa bought Sprint.

I’m not happy that he refused to invest capital in it to the degree that it negatively impacted the value of his actual investment... and mine as a shareholder.

As a result: Sprint is becoming part of T-Mobile: “New T-Mobile”. T-Mobile is not becoming part of Sprint.

If this merger doesn’t go through, Masa will have to open the spigot on funding Sprint unless he can find another suitable merger partner... which could offer a worse merger deal than T-Mobile.

Or he could let things go the way they are and everything that Sprint said to the FCC as far as its smaller coverage area, limited 5G deployment and shrinking competitive scale (vs the competition) will come to be.

Red,. I applaud your passion.  And no I'm not being condescending.  But I disagree with what your saying.  Yess, we didn't see the $5-6B that tmobile spends. Or the $10+B that the other two guys spend.  The balance sheet couldn't support it.  They had to be creative, Hence Mobilitie.  I would have love to see money thrown Willy nilly to build more tower. But, at that point it couldn't be done. 

 Now the point about Masa,. Think about it this way.  It's like you got this big ass mansion with many guest houses.  And fires all over the place.  And a guest house catches ?.  But your limited on how much water you can use.   If you use too much, you won't have enough to protect the mansion. And then everything you worked for is down the drain.  Or literally up in smoke.  

Masa has $100B+ in debt.  Guy is not dumb.  But he has to be selective on how to use the *water*. 

I think he's an incredible risk taker. Some pan out, some don't.  But, I won't critize the guy, cause again if Masa didn't buy Sprint. Other carriers would be picking @ Sprint like vultures on the roads.  

[runagun]

1 hour ago, BlueAngel said:

If the merger doesn't go through I'm out, not gonna be a good network to be on considering the competition. Would love to see B41 at it's prime, it's perfect for 5G but time will tell.

Don't be dramatic. Lol. Can't wait to see Neville and Saw on the podium kicking ass and taking names.  

[Bob Newhart]

4 hours ago, BlueAngel said:

If the merger doesn't go through I'm out, not gonna be a good network to be on considering the competition. Would love to see B41 at it's prime, it's perfect for 5G but time will tell.

And 5G is ... what?

All it is now is 1 number higher than 4.

[bigsnake49]

Look I hate Charlie Ergen, but at this point I think that it would have been much better if he had acquired Sprint or rather merged with it. At least he would have brought some spectrum with him and would have invested some money in Sprint.

[floorguy]

So Ill throw my 2 bits out, from a few things I have noticed/found out.... 

The sprint/tmo roam agreement is in full effect and is aggressive... It took me a good couple weeks to figure out what the hell was going on, and why i kept "roaming" in my "home" area.. So i emailed my sales rep (I have a business account) and asked what the hell is going on.... He gave me a discount for the inconvenience (thanks for that) and told me they are working on towers aggressively out here (Utah).  Well today as I was waiting on something, the roaming thing popped up again, and I went and did some reading on reddit (yes i am sure most of you know all this)  So roaming on clearwire.. is roaming on Tmo.. and its native and you should keep the dl speeds of the tower. Because where i was, had a tmo tower 500 feet from me, and the sprint tower was about 1.5 miles.....so there we go on that...

My sales rep also said "off record" there has been A LOT of traffic from Tmo reps at the KC offices, and that there is a positive attitude that this thing should go through. Though of course no "commits"   They will get more info in Dec, and it should be a fairly seamless transaction...

[derrph]

If this merger goes through will T-Mobile inherent Tidal as well since Sprint has some ownership in it? I think it’s something T-Mobile can really market and make it work. 

[runagun]

20 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Look I hate Charlie Ergen, but at this point I think that it would have been much better if he had acquired Sprint or rather merged with it. At least he would have brought some spectrum with him and would have invested some money in Sprint.

If he bought the company there would have has much much less money for any capital improvements.  His balance sheet is a lot worse. There's no one outside of a few companies that have billions that the can just throw to pump up a network.  A business has to be self sustainable.  Which Sprint wasn't for a decent amount of time, hence the cut in capital expenditures.  

[bigsnake49]

3 hours ago, runagun said:

If he bought the company there would have has much much less money for any capital improvements.  His balance sheet is a lot worse. There's no one outside of a few companies that have billions that the can just throw to pump up a network.  A business has to be self sustainable.  Which Sprint wasn't for a decent amount of time, hence the cut in capital expenditures.  

An all stock merger will not need external financing. Dish still has a decent cash flow and that could have used to finance some of the network investments. Also Dish would not have needed to lay out so much money for spectrum (AWS-3, PCS-H).

[bigsnake49]

I wonder what would happen to band 26 after the merger is complete and the two companies are fully merged. Will it be sold to AT&T and Verizon to attach to their 850MHz holdings? Traded to those two or Dish in exchange for some midband spectrum? Devoted to IoT?

Similarly what will happen to 700Mhz Block A holdings? Sell it or trade it to AT&T, USCC and other regionals? Block A for AWS?

Edited October 25, 2018 by bigsnake49

[RedSpark]

On 10/23/2018 at 11:24 PM, runagun said:

Red,. I applaud your passion.  And no I'm not being condescending.  But I disagree with what your saying.  Yess, we didn't see the $5-6B that tmobile spends. Or the $10+B that the other two guys spend.  The balance sheet couldn't support it.  They had to be creative, Hence Mobilitie.  I would have love to see money thrown Willy nilly to build more tower. But, at that point it couldn't be done. 

 Now the point about Masa,. Think about it this way.  It's like you got this big ass mansion with many guest houses.  And fires all over the place.  And a guest house catches ?.  But your limited on how much water you can use.   If you use too much, you won't have enough to protect the mansion. And then everything you worked for is down the drain.  Or literally up in smoke.  

Masa has $100B+ in debt.  Guy is not dumb.  But he has to be selective on how to use the *water*. 

I think he's an incredible risk taker. Some pan out, some don't.  But, I won't critize the guy, cause again if Masa didn't buy Sprint. Other carriers would be picking @ Sprint like vultures on the roads.  

I hear what you’re saying.

The collective feelings of the market/industry (self-interested as it is for the traditional tower folks) on the Mobilitie build was that it wouldn’t work out... and they were ultimately correct. It didn’t. Sprint clearly believed it had the secret sauce such that traditional wireless/economic rules didn’t apply, and Dr. Saw/Marcelo spoke to this a number of times. Ultimately, Sprint now has to go with a traditional tower build and the money/time that went into the Mobilitie plan is a sunk cost and had to be largely written off.

Masa overextended himself with buying Sprint. He either didn’t do the due diligence or fully appreciate that the worst case scenario could happen and how much money it would actually take to turn the company/network around. As a result, he now holds just under 85% of an undercapitalized and underperforming asset, which will either merge with T-Mobile as a minority partner (not something he ever imagined I’m sure) or if it fails to go through, have to forge ahead on its own with all of the competitive issues (shrinking scale, limited 5G deployment, smaller coverage vs other carriers) that Sprint attested to in its “coming clean” FCC Filing.

As a Sprint shareholder, I feel like I was sold a very different bag of goods when SoftBank took over. It certainly wasn’t this in my opinion. I feel like I should have taken a hint when Marcelo kept hitting the snooze button on the actual build plan/funding when asked and Masa kept talking about buyer’s remorse and going back and forth on the commitment to his Sprint investment.

[Paynefanbro]

1 hour ago, bigsnake49 said:

An all stock merger will not need external financing. Dish still has a decent cash flow and that could have used to finance some of the network investments. Also Dish would not have needed to lay out so much money for spectrum (AWS-3, PCS-H).

T-Mobile's plan is to use it for LTE indefinitely. The rest of the combined company's spectrum will be split between LTE and 5G. 

[dkyeager]

The low band spectrum is one area that I expect the new Mobile to be forced to sell some spectrum.  LTE 800 is relatively low bandwidth (5x5 or 3x3, or only 1x800), but it is basically nationwide.  Perfect also for the last bastion of CDMA support.  I would expect the new T-Mobile's main interest would be preserving as much spectrum as possible during the 5g transition period.  That way they can move available bands around as each one is upgraded to 5G.  The big cash drain/opportunity will be the 2.5 remaining licenses sale which will likely be planned shortly (after the election).  I would expect any merger to be approved by the time the bidding process starts.

[runagun]

1 hour ago, RedSpark said:

I hear what you’re saying.

The collective feelings of the market/industry (self-interested as it is for the traditional tower folks) on the Mobilitie build was that it wouldn’t work out... and they were ultimately correct. It didn’t. Sprint clearly believed it had the secret sauce such that traditional wireless/economic rules didn’t apply, and Dr. Saw/Marcelo spoke to this a number of times. Ultimately, Sprint now has to go with a traditional tower build and the money/time that went into the Mobilitie plan is a sunk cost and had to be largely written off.

Masa overextended himself with buying Sprint. He either didn’t do the due diligence or fully appreciate that the worst case scenario could happen and how much money it would actually take to turn the company/network around. As a result, he now holds just under 85% of an undercapitalized and underperforming asset, which will either merge with T-Mobile as a minority partner (not something he ever imagined I’m sure) or if it fails to go through, have to forge ahead on its own with all of the competitive issues (shrinking scale, limited 5G deployment, smaller coverage vs other carriers) that Sprint attested to in its “coming clean” FCC Filing.

As a Sprint shareholder, I feel like I was sold a very different bag of goods when SoftBank took over. It certainly wasn’t this in my opinion. I feel like I should have taken a hint when Marcelo kept hitting the snooze button on the actual build plan/funding when asked and Masa kept talking about buyer’s remorse and going back and forth on the commitment to his Sprint investment.

Being a shareholder as probably most of us are. It was always known, Masa's intention was to combine Sprint & T-Mobile.  It's easier to spend 50B in a network with 120+million customers then just 50m.  When that couldn't happen. Yess, absolutely it that dinged Masa confidence in Sprint.

All in all everyone is getting what they wanted when/if this merger goes through. I personally really have no doubt it will happen.  Sit tight, if you work for either company sell the shit out of the services.  Uncertainties always brings opportunities.