Sprint sale rumors again

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earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

Yeah Charter would help capacity for Sprint's area coverage where Charter is present and help Charter expand to new markets with Sprint fixed wireless. Charter could offer OTT TV (like Sling, DTV Now) over fixed wireless as Sprint has more than enough 2500 spectrum. But they need enough backhaul fr every site to act as an ISP doing IPTV. It could be a good marriage but Charter isn't exactly rolling in the dough and poorly executed the other mergers (TWC and Brighthouse).
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

Now that the Tmobile/Sprint merger discussions seem to be completely over with, Sprint plans to invest supposedly $5B-$6B/year in network going forward. Could mean more jobs in KC too. And if Charter merger happens, overlapping jobs will be very small compared to Tmobile.

http://www.businessinsider.com/sprint-o ... nd-2017-11
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... inent.html

Announcement on a Sprint / T-Mobile deal could come as early as next week. Although, we've heard this before.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by LCDSI »

Several news articles are also confirming the rumor today. As noted we'll see if this actually goes through. If it does, it will be unfortunate news since I'm sure the new combined company will have its headquarters in Seattle.

One of the links is below.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/busi ... v=top-news
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by WoodDraw »

Just announced. Company will be called TMobile. Bye Sprint, if it goes through.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by kboish »

Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure is tweeting saying that KC will be the "2nd HQ".
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by WoodDraw »

Yeah, lol. These companies don't need two hqs. Who knows the details on their prison complex? Do they own it? How full is it?

They might keep support staff here, but all the big jobs will go.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

I think about 5K left in KC, maybe less. Though there are many contractors and related vendors not on direct payroll likely to leave too. Bad news if it goes through. They may keep some operations here in short term but unless they highly value KC's lower cost of living and cheap place to do biz, would expect most jobs to disappear in 5+ years. TMO will take on a lot of Sprint debt, job losses could happen much faster.

If regulators don't allow this to go through, will be interesting to see what Softbank does. Selling Sprint assets off in pieces wouldn't be surprising.
Last edited by earthling on Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by WoodDraw »

Yeah, with mergers like this they're just after the customers. The "synergy" will come from getting rid of Kansas City and combining it all into TMobile operations.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

Sprint at one time peaked to 30K local employees (around late 90s to 2000) and has fallen to 6K. KC has been adjusting to a major hit for a while.

This is trend of all "Information" jobs in KC, hard hit by Sprint since 2000 (and loss of many AT&T/SW Bell jobs too), another 6K may not matter much. Though it would wipe out a lot of vendors here because of Sprint too. Then again, if TMO values KC as a low cost place to do biz, they could maintain a local presence.

Image

Meanwhile "Pro Biz/STEM" jobs in KC have been growing robustly...
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/SMU2928 ... raphs=true

Correction, KC Star says Sprint has about 6K employees in KC area...
http://www.kansascity.com/news/business ... 98039.html
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by Highlander »

WoodDraw wrote:Yeah, with mergers like this they're just after the customers. The "synergy" will come from getting rid of Kansas City and combining it all into TMobile operations.
It may be just words for now but Overland Park will be a "second" HQ according to the Star article. That might be said just to appease the stakeholders. I know a few companies that promised to and did retain significant work forces at the former operations centers of the non HQ city but generally most mergers result in a singular HQ. But it is very expensive to move people and sometimes it's just cheaper to keep the people in their former locations.

Maybe it's my KC roots but as a frequent visitor to Seattle, I'd much rather live in KC. Seattle is a nice place to visit with a lot of natural beauty in the surrounding area but I very much do not want to live there...expensive, relatively isolated, awful traffic, and gloomy weather.
Last edited by Highlander on Thu May 03, 2018 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
earthling
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

Am skeptical of an "HQ2" staying in KC but is plausible for some operations. The combined debt and redundancy will be huge and so there will be a lot of job cuts (20K-30K estimated by analysts), but could also mean some jobs moved to or staying in KC to reduce costs. If TMobile already has significant operations in another relatively lower cost city (than Seattle) then KC may have less of a chance long term. I can't find any indication TMO has significant operations presence outside Washington state, but did find some software development related jobs in Denver. Not sure how large Denver site is.

Of course the merger needs to get past regulators first...
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by nomadcowatbk »

will they switch the sprint center colors from yellow to pink?
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

The Market is not confident in the merger. Sprint currently down over 13% and TMUS down over 5%. AT&T/TimeWarner is a vertical merger with little overlap yet has Fed resistance.
However, brokerage Oppenheimer expects 80 percent approval probability, but with conditions.

Another analyst with CFRA Research said there was a 50 percent chance of getting a regulatory approval.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-s ... 50200.html
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by GRID »

That sprint campus is going to continue to be Downtown's worst enemy. If they have to backfill another 1-2 million sq ft of office space in that place and they continue do so by poaching KCMO companies using state incentives plus ludicrously low rents for furnished Class A office space, then new downtown office space will continue to be nearly impossible.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by ToDactivist »

even more reason for the CityState...
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by normalthings »

The debt load of a combined T-Mobile and Sprint is soo high that doubt they will be able to do well. Especially if they are about to take on huge Cap Ex expenditures to build a 5G network.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by FangKC »

Sprint plans to sell OP campus, lease only the space it needs
Sprint Corp. plans to sell its Overland Park headquarters, leasing back a portion that it uses, CEO Michel Combes announced Wednesday in emails to employees and Kansas City leaders.

The company will consolidate its employees into fewer buildings on Sprint's 4 million-square-foot campus. Sprint (NYSE: S) already leases out about 1 million square feet to other tenants, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE Group Inc.

...
https://tinyurl.com/ybza3ero
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Post by earthling »

On Tmobile/Sprint merger, Tmobile CEO says it rains everyday in Seattle area and would rather live in KC. My bet is if merger goes through KC presence will eventually dwindle to maybe some operations but is plausible they might value the lower cost of living here and beef things up. Though Dallas and Atlanta are relatively cheap to live/operate, have major air service and far bigger telcom labor force.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/ ... levue.html
"I definitely have a lot of people who would love to move to Kansas City," Legere said during an employee meeting at Sprint headquarters. "I'm one of them that would love to live here instead of Bellevue. It rains every day."

The combined company's physical presence is one of the biggest uncertainties in the merger bid. T-Mobile has said Bellevue would be the headquarters of the combined company, but it would operate a "second headquarters" in Overland Park.

The combined company would provide a cost-of-living adjustment to employees who move to Washington state from Kansas, T-Mobile President Mike Sievert said, but that would be an uncommon occurrence.

"Even if we didn't do the new T-Mobile, we were going to be looking for a new place to expand, and suddenly you have this amazing talent pool of incredible people in an incredible facility," Sievert said.

T-Mobile in the past was rumored to be searching for office space elsewhere, including the new Southport development in Renton, Wash., and as far away as Boise, Idaho.

Overland Park's lower cost of living is an advantage, Sievert said.
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

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The combined company would provide a cost-of-living adjustment to employees who move to Washington state from Kansas, T-Mobile President Mike Sievert said, but that would be an uncommon occurrence.
An adjustment... down?
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