Quantcast
Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Softbank buying 70% of Sprint for $20 billion

Just a few days ago,

link hidden, please login to view
confirmed they were exploring the possibility of . While the deal hasn't yet been officially announced, Business Insider is reporting that the boards of both Softbank and Sprint have agreed on a $20 billion deal with will see Softbank acquire seventy percent of the third-place US cellular network operator.

The deal, which is expected to be announced on Monday morning and still has a a few details to be worked out, will see Sprint transferring $8 billion worth of shares directly from the company, with Softbank buying an additional $12 billion from existing shareholders. The offer stands at $7.30 a share, a healthy 27% premium over the $5.73 closing price for shares of Sprint on Friday. Additionally, Softbank will take over a $3 billion bond from Sprint, clearing the way for the carrier to complete its purchase of the remaining half of .

Clearly, Softbank is betting big on the US cellular market. They've experienced substantial success in building an LTE network in Japan, stemming from a 2006 purchase of Vodafone Japan. They'll have their work cut out for them with Sprint, however. While CEO Dan Hesse has been working for several years to right the pin drop network, Sprint's suffered massive subscriber losses to competitors AT&T and Verizon, dropping them into third place by a significant margin. Additionally, Sprint is playing catch-up with their LTE network, which is currently only available in a handful of cities. While Sprint lays claim to being the first to the market with a 4G network, their WiMAX network never particularly caught on with consumers and has fallen far behind AT&T and Verizon's LTE speeds (and the latter on coverage).

According to Business Insider's sources, Softbank hopes to "build on Sprint's spectrum position", which will be enhanced once the buyout of Clearwire is completed, though apparently Softbank is hoping to further expand Sprint's spectrum holdings through acquisitions from and of other operators (). Pending regulatory approval, the purchase is expected to close in six months.

mf.gif


a2t.imgCt2JyTOK8VM

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Similar Topics

    • By Surojit Bhattacharjee
      The sales person in showroom pushed for LG saying it has better sound and picture richness. But obviously didn't reveal big shortcomings of non-android smart TV in today's ecosystem. This is useless as you are not having freedom to install apps of your choice from playstore. I can't even get Sonyliv. Horrible OS. Now I am trapped for years after buying this TV. Don't buy LG or other non-android TV unless you can affford to throw it in weeks. When will LG grow up?
    • By LG LJ617T
      Please bring app like hotstar and voot to India region, and web browser is very bad hangs alot and doesn't support flash player
    • By TvXtra
      Best advice you could probably get,   Maybe stick with (Non-Smart) televisions but stay well away from anything they suggest is Smart.
       
      The current Problems are....
       
      The LG store is 95% down for apps, when an app updates it could take a few days before you run it again.
        You have to wait anything from 30 - 60 seconds when you turn on the tv to change channel.
        The tv guide is basically an app, so that also takes ages to open (if it's not open)
        LG Technical Support are a complete waste of time, they would rather blame the app developer when the LG store is down.
        Did I say it takes 30 - 60 seconds before you can use the telly? (it's the 1950's all over again)
        Watching something on Iplayer at random times ' out of memory error ' pops up.
        Sometimes the audio is out of sync.
    • By News Reporter
      Got an old
      link hidden, please login to view or or sitting around that you'd like to put to work on another network? Turns out that even though, according to the Librarian of Congress' interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act the unlocking of cellphones is illegal without carrier approval, is totally on the side of giving you said approval. Sprint announced today in a press release that they have no problem with you using your old Sprint phone on another network - so long as it's one of Sprint's own MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). In essence, you can use your old Sprint phone on any network, so long as it's Sprint. The list of MVNOs that ride on Sprint's network is actually more than twenty operators long and includes popular names like Virgin, Boost, and Republic. Sprint's touting the option to use your old Sprint smartphone as the "Bring Your Own Sprint Device" program, taking the initiative to lower "the number of inactive phones in the market, diverting phones from landfills." Also, Sprint gets another paying customer without having to deal with the costs of subsidizing a new phone. A growing portion of the customers on Sprint's networks are on these MVNOs, which typically are of the pre-paid no-contract variety as opposed to the traditional post-paid contract system on which Sprint's network was built.
      It's worth noting that Bring Your Own Sprint Device, as the name says, only applies to Sprint devices. And that's not just because Sprint hates that you happen to have sitting in a drawer. While it might be technically possible given the right proprietary bits to reprogram a Verizon phone to work on Sprint or vice versa (we may or may not have be done so with regularity ), it's a much more difficult endeavour these days. Besides, Sprint wants you to use their phones.




    • Solution For That Pollution
    • By News Reporter
      So,
      link hidden, please login to view and . We're still putting together our thoughts on the matter, but in the meantime we thought we'd go ahead and ask you what you think. So, here's a poll:





×
×
  • Create New...