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Sprint in talks to be bought.... [SOLD!]

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Even with the sale, which will provide Sprint with some much needed capital, not much is expected to change at Sprint. The company will remain headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Dan Hesse will retain his position as CEO. A separate entity, New Sprint, will be created, under which Sprint will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
 
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At times I am shocked that most of you aren't seeing the signs.

Softbank buying out Sprint (or controlling most of it is to me a good thing. It provides the necessary cash to
  1. Increase the rollout
  2. increase its credit rating, thus
  3. Give Sprint the ability to refinance existing debt at a much lower interest rate
  4. Increase the likelihood of further acquiring other partners/corporations. Such as...
    • Clearwire *
    • MetroPCS **

The big cheese from Softbank actually turned around a money losing Vodaphone Japan and placed the company into a very good spot among the Japanese telecoms when it bought it. It introduced low rate plans unheard of (for Japan at the time) which increased subscribers. It has its own unlimited plans and is aggressively expanding its LTE network.

The bigger cheese from Sprint (have you seen them both side by side) has been turning around Sprint from the Nextel disaster and is aggressively expanding its network at a fast rate (considering the size and scope of doing this nationwide). It continues to do unlimited while others throttle it or don't offer it at all.

Together, I do not see unlimited going away for a long long time. Both big cheeses want to be at top of their game and eliminating unlimited will not do them any good. It will increase the likelihood of allowing Sprint to do so much more as outlined in my points above. With continuing the unlimited plans and increasing the LTE rollout (as well as the rest of network Vision) I can see the following graphs being true.

softbankmobile1.png


softbankmobile2.png


Source: zdnet

* With the deal I feel that Sprint will have the ability to refinance existing debt and increase the prospect of being able to fully acquire Clearwire for the spectrum that it has.

** Remember, The original plan by Softbank was to acquire both MetroPCS and T-Mobile along with Sprint back in early 2012, but the deal fell through with T-Mobile due to fears of anti-trust implications. I still feel that even if the T-Mobile / MetroPCS complete their reverse ownership deal and the Sprint / SoftBank deal also goes through, that the eventual goal is for the New Sprint to acquire MetroPCS sometime in 2013-14 through a spectrum deal that would not acquire anti-trust concerns. This will allow T-Mobile to get out of the US market as they plan on doing and give the New Sprint more spectrum in heavily congested areas.

TS
 
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In regards to the acquisition of MetroPCS, it looks like it is more of a possibility now due to the possible dissolution of agreement on terms between DT and MetroPCS.
What dissolution of agreement? Did something happened today? I miss something? linky please.

Edit: are you talking about the stockholders planning on blocking the merger?

TS out (searching)
 
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The merger could also mean better handsets. Handsets in Japan are often durable, water resistant and come in a variety of colors, with a lot of features.

I was thinking the same thing. I am also hoping we will get more world phones. Maybe Sprint will be able to get some GSM phones, or build a GSM network. I am not sure how that would work but I know it would be good. Either way I see a whole NEW SPRINT.
 
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The merger could also mean better handsets. Handsets in Japan are often durable, water resistant and come in a variety of colors, with a lot of features.

thisQueen.jpg


I am dying to get that Hello Kitty handset. Its going to make me so macho looking. :p

All joking aside, I agree with Early, one of the reasons why Softbank is wanting this deal is because Sprint has a very nice portfolio of devices from numerous manufacturers that Softbank does not have. (Although they stand very well on their own if you check their website). This will probably allow both to negotiate deals with the manufacturers to get better devices for both Sprint and Softbank as well as interoperable devices (at least between the two countries). I also agree that Japan does have some nice features that we do not have here in the USA.

TS
 
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Curiously enough, I heard on NPR yesterday that while Sprint's stock prices went up, SoftBank's went down. Apparently Japanese investors aren't as down on the deal as US investors, since it means the combined company will have something like $40 billion in debt. The thinking over there is this merger will leave SoftBank/Sprint/Spank very little wiggle room for mistakes due to that debt load.

Still hope this works out as a positive for Sprint customers, though.
 
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Perhaps you recall me writing this one up before, it's still current.

007SH | SoftBank

THATS why I remember the Softbank name!
I was trying to figure out why I remembered the name from a while before the talks of purchases. It was because I was impressed with this phone from Japan way back when. It happened to be on the Softbank network. Thanks, it was bothering me, and you've connected the dots in my head. ;)



I've noticed a significant theme throughout the thread. Alot of us have been loyal customers through the years (side note/rhetorical: why do so many of us tend to wear our service duration like a badge of honor?), but just about the most important benefit it seems that alot of us enjoy at this time is unlimited data. We know Sprint probably reads some of the internet chatter and we can tell that they know they have a competitive advantage with unlimited data since it has been a significant selling point in their advertising. However, I'm wondering if there is any way that we can clearly communicate our position further to Sprint Corp. and Softbank despite whatever message they provide us.

Maybe I'm just talking to the wall or thinking utopian but I think it would be really cool if we, as customers, could deliver a statement of some sort to all parties including Softbank and New Sprint to hopefully ensure the continuance of completely Unlimited Data (we could also stress the need for a more expedient Network Vision completion). Not to say that I think Sprint or Softbank have their priorities out of line, I just think It would be really reassuring to know that everyone involved is on the same page going forward and that we did our part to try to maintain and make better.

I don't know how we can get this message through, but I can see that Unlimited Data is a MAJOR splitting point for the consumer. Even if the word that we are getting from them that they plan to keep Unlimited Data for the time being I still think it would be our wisest move to confirm the decision in some way to stave off some of the inevitable changes that can occur when companies go through business decision changes.

Anyone have any good ideas on how we could attempt to get a uniformed message from the consumers to the top decision makers?
 
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I was reading this story about Softbank acquiring Sprint on another Forum, I won't mention the name, and its funny to see how everyone on that forum were so negative about this whole thing. It seems like the complete opposite on this Forum, everyone seems so positive or hopeful. This is one reason I really like this Forum.
 
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Japan's Softbank snaps up Sprint in $20 billion deal

Will this be a positive or negative? Apparently investors are not too impressed, as both companies stocks have dropped on the news. What changes will the new Sprint bring? Are the days of unlimited data umm...limited? Interested to hear your opinions. With the Tmobile/Metro PCS merger and now this, some interesting happenings in the cellular arena.
 
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