T-Mo's fate now rests with the government. DT agrees to let Sprint buy T-Mo.

Roland00Address

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Dec 17, 2008
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Hopes that if Sprint actually does buy T-Mobile, that the management structure of T-Mobile (Legere and company) will be running the company. After all the people who sign the checks are no longer sprint people, but the foreign company softbank, and thus they do not have to deal as much with the inertia of the bureaucracy that plagues Sprint.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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Unfortunately, this isn't anticompetitive on its face like the AT&T deal was. It looks OK... until you realize that Sprint was crap and T-mobile shockingly competent. Now we'll go from one competently-run challenger to possibly none.
 

vshah

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Sep 20, 2003
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this doesn't seem like any sort of official announcement, more of a rumor. I don't doubt that it's coming eventually though. Hope fcc/doj squish it.
 
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paperwastage

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May 25, 2010
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DT has always said they are willing to sell their T-mobile US stake

right now, the announcement simply reflects: "yes, we still want to sell... but what's the price?"

also, how does this play out? Softbank buying DT's shares in T-mobile (I guess DoJ/SEC has some say when someone buys more than x% of a company), and then merge the two later on?

hopefully T-mobile negotiates for a large breakup fee like at&t's failed merger, though Softbank/Sprint knows about this and won't go for a large fee
 

paperwastage

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May 25, 2010
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How do you merge a CDMA and GSM network. This will be interesting.

T-mobile merged with MetroPCS... MetroPCS operated a CDMA+LTE(+VoLTE) network (though smaller in coverage than Sprint's pretty fragmented WiMax+CDMA+LTE/spark network) -> reading

Also, MetroPCS's spectrum is perfectly aligned with T-mobile's (AWS/1900), while Sprint's spectrum isn't (800, 1900, 2600)

MetroPCS+t-mobile Merged in 2012
CDMA network target decomm in Mid 2015 (though MetroPCS was already starting decomm plans before the merger)

Sprint+nextel merged in 2005
Nextel's Iden network was only decommed in mid 2013... sigh






btw, t-mobile "Uncarrier 5.0" is on June 18... wonder what they have... I'm guessing VoLTE upgrade for a lot of markets or VoLTE app for all phones that replaces WiFi calling
 
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boomhower

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Sep 13, 2007
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The money of Softbank and the management of T-Mobile could be an interesting combination. Sprint's management has proven themselves incompetent many times over. Merging the tech would certainly be difficult with the most sense moving it all LTE/GSM and ditching CMDA but would be expensive.
 

bearxor

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Jul 8, 2001
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DT will unload TMo US the first chance they get.

I don't think a Sprint buying TMo US is necessarily a bad thing. They will also have more spectrum as a combined unit then they will know what to do with. They're going to have to give some up to smaller companies in order to satisfy regulators.

I do expect that, if it happens, Sprints current leadership will be out and TMo's current leadership will take over.
 

Sheep

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Jun 13, 2006
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I do expect that, if it happens, Sprints current leadership will be out and TMo's current leadership will take over.

I was under the impression that in most acquisitions/mergers, the purchasing entity usually keeps its own management in place and jettisons the redundant staff of the entity being purchased. I really hope that won't be the case here.

A recent example of a company that uses GSM buying one that uses CDMA is AT&T buying Cricket (and subsequently merging it with AIO). It's my understanding that going forward, Cricket will only sell GSM phones and slowly phase out CDMA ones. I have no idea what the timeline to do this is but it makes sense to not have both GSM and CDMA devices under the same brand. Obviously those userbases are tiny in comparison to Sprint/T-Mobile, but I suspect there will be a similar plan implemented should Sprint be allowed to make the purchase.
 

bearxor

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Jul 8, 2001
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The whole CDMA/GSM thing means so little right now. Every company is moving to LTE and, more importantly, VoLTE. Frequency will be constantly reallocated to LTE. Sprints CDMA network will have to exist for another decade. TMo's GSM network will have to be around for another decade. But the amount of spectrum allocated to each will shrink over time.

As for management, SoftBank has held off on making any massive executive changes since taking over Sprint. It's my opinion they want to... Ahem... "Acquire" new management.
 

Ravynmagi

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Jun 16, 2007
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I love what John Legere and T-Mobile have been doing. Meanwhile Sprint stinks of failure. The idea of Sprint buying T-Mobile and Dan Hesse leading this new company makes me cry. And I don't see Sprint replacing Hesse with Legere.
 

bearxor

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CrimsonWolf

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I love what John Legere and T-Mobile have been doing. Meanwhile Sprint stinks of failure. The idea of Sprint buying T-Mobile and Dan Hesse leading this new company makes me cry. And I don't see Sprint replacing Hesse with Legere.

I'd agree but Sprint is just a subsidiary now. They are now longer the masters of their own destiny. It would really be Son and SoftBank driving the deal. If they are more impressed by Legere et. al. I don't think they'd hesitate to kick the old Sprint executives to the curb.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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Yeah, reports seem to indicate that the plan is to put Legere in charge and fire Hesse's band of failbots. IMO they should bury the Sprint brand while they're at it.

(I do like the Framily ads with whatshername though.)
 

Geekbabe

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www.theshoppinqueen.com
I love what John Legere and T-Mobile have been doing. Meanwhile Sprint stinks of failure. The idea of Sprint buying T-Mobile and Dan Hesse leading this new company makes me cry. And I don't see Sprint replacing Hesse with Legere.

but, but they have Hamsters and Framily! ;)
 

KentState

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Oct 19, 2001
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How do you merge a CDMA and GSM network. This will be interesting.

This is happening all over the place. For exaqmple, Cincinnati Bell (GSM) was purchased by VZW earlier this year. Probably offer free upgrades to people on contract. There are plenty of phones they probably want to liquidate.
 

paperwastage

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May 25, 2010
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Well we can close this deal down for now. Looks like Sprint is backing out of the deal. Report also suggest Dan Hesse is out, which was going to happen either way.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/sprint-abandoning-pursuit-of-t-mobile-1407279448

What I'm curious about, does this mean TMobile gets the 2B they were promised if the deal fell through or is this too early in the process for that to be a factor?

nope. they haven't nailed down any specifics (to send to the regulators, and let the regulators reject the offer)

unfortunate... it'll be fun watching what T-mobile could do with an extra 2B in cash/assets
 

BarkingGhostar

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Nov 20, 2009
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nope. they haven't nailed down any specifics (to send to the regulators, and let the regulators reject the offer)

unfortunate... it'll be fun watching what T-mobile could do with an extra 2B in cash/assets
There is still the Iliad offer.