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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:07 pm
by Zorobabel
I don't think the HQ would be moved necessarily because it'd be closer to Japan but rather for the purposes of attracting talent.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 3:58 am
by FangKC
Not necessarily. Toyota is moving its' headquarters and operations from the LA Metro to Plano, Texas. I think it's around 4000 jobs. They cited the lower cost of operating there for the move.

Sprint has had trouble maintaining consistent quarters of profits. It wouldn't seem wise to me to move thousands of employees to a place with higher operating costs, especially when the company already owns its' campus, and makes money renting out to other companies as well from that campus. They certainly have room to grow from that location as well, so no worries about finding affordable space.

On the recruiting talent front, Softbank has to consider the cost of attracting new employees versus the expensive option of paying to move thousands of already-settled employees to a higher-cost location.

Certain questions arise. Will current employees be willing to move? Will you lose a lot of institutional talent with knowledge and history of operations? Will they be willing to uproot kids from schools, and leave their extended families and friends? Or will they leave the company, stay put, and look for another tech job here? There will also be spouses who won't be willing to disrupt their own careers to move.

Will you have to raise the salaries and benefits of thousands of existing employees to cover the costs of them moving to a more expensive city? Someone who earns $100,000 at Sprint now might need to be paid $180,000 to $200,000 a year in Los Angeles or Silicon Valley to maintain their standard of living, or to compensate for higher tax environments for employees. Companies also have a policy of buying employee homes if they don't sell within a certain period of time after the move, and having to deal with unloading thousands of properties later.

Or does the company just invest more in recruitment strategies, and leave the headquarters in place?

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:48 am
by brewcrew1000
I think this merger goes through because if they merge they still would only be at 30% market share, keeping them in pace with VZ and ATT which are both at 30% as well

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:19 am
by earthling
^There are many facets to pros/cons of merger but that is one pro depending on perspective. The Feds have wanted 4 players and are concerned a combined 3rd will be no different than the two bigger ones and that there eventually would be more collusion than competition. There are also a lot of complications with 600Mhz auction coming up too but is harder to explain. Some in FCC don't really want them to merge.

As far as what this means to KC, anything can happen but here is what I think is plausible based on experience with M&As...

HQ and a few hundreds jobs probably move to W Coast whether merger happens or not and Operations type jobs stay where they are for a while. If merger occurs, some duplicate jobs will go away over 5 years - that's a given but which site is up for grabs. IE, they may decide to merge billing systems sooner or later and whichever they select likely decides which site continues that function and which doesn't. It's the next 5+ years that could spell either boom or doom for KC jobs.

Sprint uses CDMA/LTE, Tmobile uses GSM/LTE. The industry is heading towards Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and GSM/CDMA should eventually go away but likely take well over a decade or more to be completely gone, especially GSM. Sprint's advantage is that they are rolling out Network Vision that is more modern network but Tmobile is ahead with LTE rollout and GSM is used more globally. It will be interesting to see where the NOC (network operations center) ends up in 5-10 years.

Another possibility is that Tmobile becomes pre-pay and Sprint stays as post-pay - either way there will be some consolidation of jobs and it could go to either KC or Seattle. I do agree it makes no sense to move all operations to a new city, maybe just the core HQ and a few hundred jobs. It's not really as important for KC to keep the Corporate HQ, local economy wise it's more important to go after the Operations jobs. It doesn't help that the Tmobile CEO may take top position according to reports.

But it has to get past the Feds and may not. If the ATT/DirecTV and Comcast/TimeWarner mergers go through, Sprint/Tmo probably will too.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 5:30 pm
by rxlexi
Thanks for the analysis, Earthling. I enjoy reading your take on the telecom/tech scene in KC.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:57 pm
by pstokely
Sprint make move its exec HQ to DFW or Atlanta

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 7:43 pm
by FangKC
We may see the HQ management go to the Seattle area, since T-Mobile already has headquarters in Bellevue, WA. Operations will probably stay here.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:23 pm
by FangKC
Report: Sprint will lose its name if it wins T-Mobile merger
Sprint Corp. customers will reportedly see a new name at the top of their bills if its acquisition of T-Mobile US Inc. is successful.

Sprint would assume the T-Mobile name if regulators allow a prospective merger of the carriers, according to CNBC. While Sprint is the larger mobile carrier, T-Mobile recently has found more success at attracting new customers.
http://tinyurl.com/olcyxox

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:31 pm
by zonk
The Sprint....er, T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City....I don't like the sound of that.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:52 pm
by earthling
Yeah, I mentioned on last page that Tmobile name more likely to stick given the damaged Sprint name...
earthling wrote:\Sounds like Tmobile parent (DT) would still hold about 15-20% and possibly merged companies would keep the Tmobile name. Sprint's name is damaged so a name change doesn't surprise me but am surprised DT would allow Softbank to control the Tmobile brand in US when DT also uses Tmobile brand name in Europe. DT wants to keep a few top mgmt in new company. My guess is that HQ moves to Seattle or W Coast if this goes through but KC may have a chance to keep operations.\
It's really hard to get even a hint if this could go through. Analysts are all over the place on if it can get approved or not - with strong cases it will or wont. I'd be surprised if it goes through but it just depends on what the Feds weigh more - desire for more competition or allow all the majors across industry to get larger.

If ATT/DirecTV and Comcast/TimeWarner go through, that's the only way I could see Sprint/Tmo go through. It would be surprising if Feds let them get larger but not Sprint/TMO. However the Feds could allow the other two to go through and desire to wait for someone like Dish to acquire Tmo. Given current situation, I'd still give less than 50% chance Sprint/Tmo merger being approved, unless there is no other chance for someone else to acquire Tmobile in next few years.

From perspective of Softbank's desire to merge, they should wait for next round of elections because GOP'rs are apparently more willing to let this go through than DEMs. That's already been indicated within FCC. From KC's perspective, would probably be better for them not to merge, which would force Softbank to complete the Spark/LTE rollout quickly - or maybe Son lets Sprint rot, but I doubt that.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 2:04 pm
by KCMax
Kansas City could lose ‘Sprint Center’ and much more in T-Mobile merger
First, we soon could be saying goodbye to the Sprint name. It’s believed to be history if a merger occurs.

Second, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse reportedly would not be in charge of a newly merged company. So there goes a powerful and longtime civic leader.

Third, the wildly successful Sprint Center most likely would have to get a new name if the Sprint name goes away.

Fourth — and this is the biggest unknown — Kansas City could be in danger of losing jobs after the merger, especially if the new CEO wants to move the corporation’s top dogs to California (closer to Japan, home of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son) or T-Mobile USA’s headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.
OH NO, A NEW NAME?????

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 2:46 pm
by herrfrank
When I did some work at the old headquarters United Telecom building back in the 1980s, the origin of the name was explained as the "Southern Pacific Railway Internal NeTwork." The company went through many name changes in the 1980s as I recall. Sprint as a corporate name is relatively recent.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:35 pm
by brewcrew1000
I think Cerner Center would be a great name for the new arena

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:03 pm
by TheBigChuckbowski
brewcrew1000 wrote:I think Cerner Center would be a great name for the new arena
They would have to move it outside of 435, though.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2014 5:02 pm
by pash
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 12:26 pm
by earthling
Sprint/Tmobile talks apparently on hold as other outside companies interested in Tmobile. Doesn't seem likely the Feds would allow them to merge as long as there is a realistic chance of other players grabbing Tmobile...
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... uitor.html

While Sprint/Tmobile would be good for them overall, it probably wouldn't end up good for KC area. A struggling Sprint on their own may actually be better for KC than potentially lost jobs from merger but they must finish their Spark rollout and expand to rural areas to be able to compete. Maybe if Tmob deal is completely dead, Son will start to focus on completing Spark rollout. It works well for me from midtown to downtown KC.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 11:53 pm
by pash
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Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:13 am
by earthling
May come back later if no one else acquires Tmobile with a few years. If Sprint goes it alone, maybe best for KC jobs but would still expect the HQ leaves KC fairly soon. Best hope for KC is to keep operational jobs long term, acting as Operational HQ with Corporate HQ somewhere else.

edit: According to the Star, the new CEO will move to KC area, which is better sign than going to the new innovation center in Bay Area but still would set expectations that corp HQ eventually leaves.

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:51 am
by beautyfromashes
earthling wrote:According to the Star, the new CEO will move to KC area, which is better sign than going to the new innovation center in Bay Area but still would set expectations that corp HQ eventually leaves.
Any chance that this new, younger CEO moves into downtown and pushes for better company connection to the core with a new highrise location built to attract a younger, energized workforce? Yeah, probably not. :(

Re: Sprint sale rumors again

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:26 am
by earthling
Not when they have a $1B+ campus and most of the contractors/service companies have offices out there.