The move by Sprint/Softbank to buy the rest of Clearwire surprised nobody except with its timing, but there is nevertheless some dispute over the price. After all, Sprint is buying a company that it owns a majority stake in, and therefore there is always the suspicion that minority shareholders will get the short end of the stick. In this case one of those minority investors, Crest Financial, is already making a stink and looking for allies. What do you think, do they have a case? Have your say, vote here:
If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!
Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Polls · Wireless
Join Our LinkedIn Group
Rob, you must be friends with en_ron_hubbard while stating this move “surprised nobody” while it should have surprised everyone who has been paying attention to that Huckster, Hesse, at the Helm representing the Head of the class over at Sprint!
When I think about how he tried to minimize, even destroy this valuable U.S. spectrum asset during the past couple of years including but not limited to his “Lightsquared” morass, I would not mind seeing Mr. Son from Asia chop his head off when this potential “theft of property” is finished playing out. That’s my five to ten cents worth of “underpayment”! imo
A good friend of mine sent me a link as a Christmas gift. I would like to share his gift to me with Mr. Powell’s board members. Happy Holidays Clearwire owners! 🙂
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1001082/000110465912085402/a12-29768_28k.htm
Dish is looking for more time to petition a declination of the Sprint/Clearwire acquisition.
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022088147
Clearwire’s spectrum will be a lump of coal when Google & Microsoft start using TV White Space Spectrum.
Google, Microsoft Showing “Extreme Interest” In White Spaces Spectrum In The U.K.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/05/report-google-microsoft-showing-extreme-interest-in-white-spaces-spectrum-in-the-u-k/
TVWS is incredibly over-hyped. There are few to no channels available in major metro areas.
http://whitespaces.spectrumbridge.com/whitespaces/home.aspx
Less, Clearwire is a distressed asset that’s lucky to find an exit at all.
Does anyone really have a good handle on the end game of DISH? Of course i don’t think anyone does since it would be insider info but I am not asking the question to be coy or sound like i am prognosticating like some but rather i just don’t know what Joe Claytons doing since he can be such a wild card. Is this really about spectrum? Or is there an addition by substraction deal in here somewhere?
While I was working for him at one telecom company he surprised us all with strategic inorganic decisions transforming the business. He sold frontier to Global Crossing for more than anyone ever thought was possible and thus delivered significant multiples over the shareholders valuation. Of course Joe was gone when the ship sank so you can’t blame him for the GC failures but still i wonder what might have happened had he remained. While he was at Sirrius he made some risky moves where some panned out and some didn’t …. but the overall enterprise valuation of sirius increased significantly to the point where XM could no longer ignore the take out transaction due to future risk.
Is it possible Joe’s trying to raise the enterprise valuation of DISH positioning it for potential acquisition targeting … I don’t know if that is even possible since i know nothing about FCC regulatory control over satellite providers though there must be some significant barriers due to the potential foreign threats. i just can’t stop thinking Joe’s going to surprise us all by going after a telecom provider with deep fiber assets not for the sake of running it as a telecom company but to better position access to DISH’s end game of content subscribers. If there’s any truth to anything we’ve heard its possible he’s exploring all avenues of content distribution other than just spectrum and satellite. So i’d not be surprised if during his pursuit of spectrum he does a deal with the likes of a carrier for additional distribution of content vehicles. I know there will be people who will immediately jump on this as ridiculous but fiber optical links are best known for their consistent performance as VZ FIOS recently ranked highest customer satisfaction for performance of content delivered. Fiber is immune to EMI/RFI, including solar- and space-sourced interference, which can be a real problem over long distances. On the flip side fiber networks take a lot of work to install and maintain.
I will leave you with this …. one thing to keep in mind as a possible avenue is joe’s got good relationships with the CEO at EarthLink and in this space its all about relationships and enterprise valuation targets.
Ok i am going to get off my soap box!