Sprint sale rumors again

[KCMax]

[

Why did Boeing move from Seattle then?

Chicago gave a ton of city property-tax abatements, and Illinois allowed Boeing to continue to pay no income tax, and gave up millions in grants as well. The also built a helipad for Boeing, and Boeing exec said they were tired of flying from Seattle to NYC.

[pash]

.

[earthling]

Sprint is going to purchase a controlling interest in Clearwire.

Is a little odd that Sprint did this now. Now Clearwire $4B debt shows up on Sprint books. Would've thought they would wait til after Softbank deal closes and post it to New Sprint, which will have a different stock structure.

[IraGlacialis]

And if Sprint were based in MSP, Minneapolis doesn't have direct flights to Tokyo, Denver either.

Denver doesn't, but Minneapolis has direct flights to Narita with Delta.
It was actually probably the one few times going through customs on the American side was a pleasant experience.

[earthling]

^Ah, I see now MSP has a once daily flight, didn't see on last quick check.

[KCMax]

SoftBank purchase is first domino in Sprint-Clearwire deal

Sprint Nextel Corp. forged a three-way relationship with Clearwire Corp. and SoftBank Corp. on Monday after months of speculation that the trio eventually would morph into one entity.
Rumors that SoftBank Corp.’s interest in buying Sprint (NYSE: S) was tied to Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) — and its rich wireless spectrum assets — solidified Monday when the latter two companies announced that they’d reached an acquisition agreement contingent on the $20.1 billion Sprint-SoftBank merger.

[Zorobabel]

And if Sprint were based in MSP, Minneapolis doesn't have direct flights to Tokyo, Denver either.

Denver doesn't, but Minneapolis has direct flights to Narita with Delta.
It was actually probably the one few times going through customs on the American side was a pleasant experience.

Since my wife and I have lived overseas so often, she has twice had to get an immigrant visa to live in the US. When we arrived from Narita in Minneapolis, the process of going through immigration took about 15 minutes. When we arrived in Dallas, it took us over 3 hours (2 hours of which were spent in a room that we were not allowed to leave).

[FangKC]

Dish Network makes play for Sprint in $25.5 billion offer

http://www.kmbc.com/news/kansas-city/Di ... 2B9%2Bnews

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... IkR4jelrPz

[earthling]

Will be surprising if Sprint seriously considers this as it sounds like it would give Dish too much control over future of Sprint with a completely different strategy. It doesn't sound like a good deal for Sprint but they should at least pretend to be interested to see if they can get a better offer from Softbank.

As far as which deal is better for KC jobs - seems to be Softbank on the surface.

WSJ did a comparison of the offers...
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2013/04/15/d ... ing_stream

[FangKC]

If Dish Network buys Sprint, and the headquarters is moved to Denver, it will create an economic wound here.

http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/b ... IkR4jelrPz

[Zorobabel]

Losing 7,500 employees with an average salary of almost $100,000 would be a massive economic loss for OP / JoCo.

[earthling]

Yeah, if the Dish deal goes through, doesn't look like it will be good for KC or even Sprint. Dish would have 100% ownership. Dan would go away, the Sprint board would go away - so they won't endorse this. Dish has no telcom experience and has an unproven almost fantasy plan. The Dish proposal is unsolicited, never contacting Sprint - essentially a takeover bid directed only to shareholders, not a mutual merger with the company. Hopefully the stockholders don't make a greedy and hasty decision just for short term monetary gain. That is, unless Sprint can change the terms that favors Sprint and gives them control.

BTW, the Star points out several secondary impacts Sprint has to KC economy but doesn't mention there are also over 100 supply/contractor companies in KC because of Sprint. Many tech companies like HP/IBM/EMC/Ericson have departments entirely dedicated to Sprint. Sprint might be able to keep operations in KC for a while but as aggressive as this Dish guy is, won't be surprising if he moves as much as he can to Denver over next decade, including the core network operations. KC could lose corporate HQ status with Softbank but likely they would move just execs to a more accessible city to Japan. Operational HQ likely to stay in KC with Softbank.

[pstokely]

Won't the Kansas tax cuts be enough for dish to keep jobs here?

[aknowledgeableperson]

Hopefully the stockholders don't make a greedy and hasty decision just for short term monetary gain.

I would imagine for individual stockholders they would take the money and run. The institutional will probably study it more and see what is best. What we don't know is the makeup of the stockholders with regards to insiders.

[brewcrew1000]

Losing 7,500 employees with an average salary of almost $100,000 would be a massive economic loss for OP / JoCo.

It would be a huge hit for Missouri as well, an empty sprint campus equals more poaching

[bobbyhawks]

Losing 7,500 employees with an average salary of almost $100,000 would be a massive economic loss for OP / JoCo.

It would be a huge hit for Missouri as well, an empty sprint campus equals more poaching

Kansas hasn't shown much imagination in bringing in jobs from beyond the immediate region. I wonder if losing this many jobs would change the strategy. It is pretty difficult to replace 7,500 jobs with 375 KCMO businesses at 20 employees each. Also, the 500 to 1,000 business owners or partner-owners of those businesses and LLPs (aka the highest incomes) would not be paying taxes, so you really would have to poach a number of jobs that does not account for business owners as jobs and also accounts for the fact that the average job is lower paying. Losing Sprint would probably aim Kansas' desperation at bigger fish.

Also, aren't there now like a million ways for a small business to structure itself so that nobody pays taxes? Wouldn't anyone from a college painting crew to a larger law firm be able to form a partnership where ownership was not equal?

[aknowledgeableperson]

http://www.reuters.com/.../us-sprint-di ... G1AE201304...

Omega Advisors, one of the biggest shareholders in Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N), on Wednesday joined a growing group of investors who say they favor Dish Network Corp's (DISH.O) $25.5 billion bid for the company over SoftBank Corp's (9984.T) offer.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen on Monday announced a challenge to SoftBank's $20.1 billion offer to buy 70 percent of No. 3 U.S. mobile provider Sprint, prompting support from shareholders including activist Paulson & Co. on Tuesday.

Leon Cooperman, the chairman of Omega Advisors Inc, a holder of both Dish and Sprint shares, said Ergen is currently in the lead in terms of valuation even as he praised Japan's SoftBank and its billionaire founder Masayoshi Son.
...
Omega now owns 75 million Sprint shares after adding some recent stock purchases, according to Cooperman. Omega was Sprint's 10th biggest shareholder as of Dec 31 when it held 56 million Sprint shares and 3.7 million Dish shares according to the most recent public filings.
...
A money manager at one of the operator's top 25 shareholders told Reuters on Monday that they would vote for the deal. Merger arbitrage firm Westchester Capital, which held 12 million Sprint shares at the end of 2012 also said that the Dish offer appeared to be better deal than the SoftBank agreement.

[KCMax]

SoftBank’s plans for Sprint will include Silicon Valley offices

The proposed office would not replace Sprint’s headquarters, but would concentrate on innovation.

[pstokely]

SoftBank’s plans for Sprint will include Silicon Valley offices

The proposed office would not replace Sprint’s headquarters, but would concentrate on innovation.

You can't get college grads from Silicon Valley to move what they think is a cornfield, little or no taxes isn't enough

[earthling]

SoftBank’s plans for Sprint will include Silicon Valley offices

The proposed office would not replace Sprint’s headquarters, but would concentrate on innovation.

You can't college grads from Silicon Valley to move what they think is a cornfield, little or no taxes isn't enough

FWIW, I know a couple single guys in Silicon Valley making over $80K and can't afford to live in San Jose area, they live out in the desert.

Is likely they'll keep most everything in KC with Softbank, though I expect them to move the corporate HQ to W Coast eventually and keep operational HQ in KC. It would essentially be just the board in HQ location at most. They could still officially keep corporate HQ in KC and meet in Bay Area but don't count on KC keeping HQ. With Dish, long term many things could move out of KC - back office functions, entire data center, billing, many depts could eventually leave KC. Maybe even the NOC leaves in 10 years or so depending on how Sprint would evolve with Dish.

A Softbank innovation center in Bay Area may not be a bad idea, could provide future ties to KC in various ways. Given KC is much cheaper to operate in, wouldn't expect a lot of jobs shifting to Bay Area with Softbank. With Dish, many jobs could shift to Denver.

If Dish deal doesn't come through, KC may still have one more hurdle. There's a good chance Sprint and Tmobile will merge in 5 years or so to compete with ATT/VZW. KC will be battling Seattle area for HQ.