Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I read an interesting article over on Betanews.com that speculates the possibility of Deutsche Telekom the current owners of T-Mobile in the United States possibly buying out Sprint. It's pure speculation at this point brought up by some Merrill Lynch analysts but it's an interesting article nonetheless.

There's certainly some pro's and con's to having such a merger or buyout take place.

Article Link: http://www.betanews.com/article/TMob...sts/1204925834

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Please tell me they'll keep us on CDMA.... GSM sucks, and I get tired of listening to GSM cellphones' RFI in shoddy unshielded stereo speakers.

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Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I work for Sprint. This won't happen. A lot of people (especially with other carriers) like to "speculate" about Sprint and it's direction. I can assure you that Sprint has no plans on being bought out. The recent lay off's and cut in costs were a business decision by Sprint in order to keep things flowing properly in the right direction. You don't hire a new CEO and a whole new batch of advisors (vp, mvp etc.) and sell the company. Sprint is going in the right direction. WiMax will be launching in 2008. Sprint will have new Sprint walkie talkie phones coming out this year that will be running Rev. A. Which also means there is a possiblity that you will be able to use Direct Connect on your Mogul. Sprint is going to be the leader in the wireless industry once again and it will happen sooner than everyone thinks.

So forget about Sprint ever giving up on CDMA (At least until they convert everything to WiMax and you are able to do voice of WiMax. It will end up being CDMA/WiMaX network I think.) They are not going to be bought out. Customer should feel excited about being with Sprint even though there are tough times, Customer Service is going to improve a great deal and you are going to experience being a customer of the leading wireless country in America.

With that said. NO SPRINT ISN'T BEING BOUGHT OUT.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

i doubt sprint will get bought out now.. i mean they are having rough times.. but jeez it aint THAT bad.. it'll pick up

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

that speech just inspired me to like sprint again o.O bravo lol

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

oh trust, i seriously doubt sprint is going out like that.. whats going on is sprint is working on bigger and better things.. once everything comes together, people will flock in like sardines.. not to mention how the fastest mobile broadband network will be that much faster...

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I work for SPrint also and u made me soo proud of being with this company! seriously.. i understand that our cust service is not the best .. but ive seen changes in the company and i think that little by little the company is going to get where it needs to.. the number 1 spot!:protest:

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

The market analysts have too much time on their hands IMO. DT aquiring Sprint may look good on paper at first considering the value of the Euro is much stonger than the American Dollar and DT would be getting one heck of a good deal with Sprint but then you have to look at the long term ramifacations and cost impact of such an aquisition.

Sprint had enough of a problem engulfing Nextel and those problems are still here and won't go away over night but it looks like Hesse has things starting to head in the right direction. But at that time Sprint Nextel had to deal with 2 companies, 2 different network technologies, 2 billing platforms, 2 cultures and 2 completely different subscriber bases and they're still working through those issues. Now Imagine if DT comes in; instead of 2 of everything it'll now be 2 1/2 companies, 3 network technologies, 3 billing platforms (soon to be 2 as when P2K to Ensemble migrations are complete), 3 cultures, 3 completely different subscriber bases and a partridge in a pear tree.

The long term effects of such an aquisition would be incredibly challenging and very expensive to DT. I personally don't see this happening and don't want this to happen but then again everyone said the same thing about Sprint and Nextel "merging" so I guess we can never say never...

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I just went back to Sprint Friday and LOVE my new Mogul. I was with them in 2000 and service sucked... signals that is. They fixed that. And now with the 100 buck program for everything unlimited including broadband how could I go wrong? Hell, with discounts and a rebate I got the Mogul 6800 for 200 bucks. Can you beat that deal?

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

sprint is the only company the the national promoter score is a negitive 2 that right -2 that why they are not going to sell anyone one who would by them would have to do a lot of work but hey. anything is possible

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Actually in regards to the hiring and not selling comment that is exactly what happens. It is happening with Toys R Us. We were publically traded and got bought out because we were an in the red company. After restructuring we're now making a good profit and in the process of setup for sell off.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Does T-Mobile have "real" picmail? Cant get Sprint's snafoo out of my head!

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

sprint will never agree to a buy out!!!

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

They don't have to agree to a buy out. There is take-overs and this happens all the time. If you have enough cash you buy enough stock and control 50.01% of the company then you effectively own it since your vote automatically wins.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I also work for Sprint...although I'm just a pee-on i have to say, No way. The number one reason.....Wi-max. sprint is banking on being the only nationwide carrier to be able to offer this technology. They own nearly all the available wi-max bandwidth. that has been their (corporate and stock holders) focus until lately. Wi-max will be operational nationwide by the end of the year. I just hope the new pricing and whatever else they do to decrease the loss of customers, i do before my job is cut.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I guess I'll chime in...

I work for Sprint, but I think a lot of you reps are looking at this entirely too idealistically. Just like Bushd said, buyouts happen all the time and remember that Sprint's stock is pretty low. I am not an economics whiz, but I am pretty sure that unless they decide to go private, they can be bought by anyone. Then again, if that were completely possible, Microsoft would have purchased Yahoo! by now.

Thing is, although Sprint has had a troubled past, I think they are going to give Dan Hesse a shot and turning it all around. My Sprint reps can vouch that things have really changed just from our end since he's come into power. The idea to close a lot of the third party sales stores and even the under performing corporate stores was just a smart move. AT&T did the same thing and it drove a lot of business into the stores they controlled. I think that once these changes have finally finalized themselves, people are going to be drawn to Sprint because our plans have always been the best in the business.

The thing is, users and shareholders have to be patient. We will probably lose more customers for the next year, but I think that will slow and turn around as we see things change everyday.

Do I want to be bought be T-Mobile...I dunno. Maybe they would get rid of iRMS and fire everyone who ****s my commission checks up every month. But I want to give Sprint a chance to keep going. We are the only cell company that doesn't have deep pockets of money from parent companies and look how well we've done.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Buyout? No way. Sprint isn't going anywhere.

First of all, if you look at tech industry stock trends since Christmas, EVERYONE has had drops in the 30-40% range, so Sprint's stock price being low right now isn't anything to be surprised or concerned about.

Second, Sprint's biggest fault is customer service, plain and simple. They have decent products, decent service, and excellent prices (esp. compared to AT&T and Verizon). Their layoffs and corporate restructuring efforts prove that they're willing to make changes, and their initiative to go unlimited for cheap shows they're able and willing to compete.

Now that the Mogul 3.35 firmware update is out, most people are satisfied with it. If Sprint can work with HTC to get the Touch updated to Rev. A, and get some of their Blackberry models up-to-date, they'll continue to have a successful product line. I don't even think they need to have an iPhone contract, just competitive devices, which means they need to develop stronger ties to Microsoft, HTC, and Samsung, among others.

So really it comes back to is the need to be focusing on customer service procedures. They need to get their techs up to speed, fix the nightmare that is their call-tree system when you call them, and eliminate the billing fiascoes that people complain about.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

That would be a shame. They are the only company with those low data rates and high data speeds. They also are the only major US carrier not yet implicated in illegal domestic spying so for that reason also I have seen little other choice. I personally won't pay my money to a company who uses political clout to get away with treason.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

More importantly, no one has the kind of cash flow to buy out Sprint. Same speculation right now with Best Buy buying out Circuit City or someone else buying out CC. The only one with enough cash is direct competition that would have to shut down locations in order to not compete with itself.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

This is what a company does before being bought out, but you must remeber the reason for the sale. Sprint's name and upcoming technology (wimax). Most likely T Mobile would go away and Deutsche TeleKom would run Sprint on CDMA. This would be a probably be a good thing for Sprint employees as the new company would be investing in it's new product and good for us customers as they would want to increase marketshare.

With Sprint losing massive customers each quarter, and after a large layoff Sprint is ripe for a takeover. Stockholders will demand a change. Watch the stock price now, if it rises DT is on the move.

Mobo

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

As long as Sprint keeps up with this line of work:

http://www.sprintcaptel.com

They are on the up and up as far as I can tell. Look for this new app to morph into "voicemail2email" real soon.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Dont take this the wrong way but it sounds like you've been drinking the company cool aid again

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

[quote=Stupid Vidiot;213321]As long as Sprint keeps up with this line of work:

http://www.sprintcaptel.com



actually looks like they havent been keeping up i tryed to register and i keep getting this messsage:

We apologize, but due to increased demand, the WebCapTel service has temporarily reached capacity.
To provide you with the best service possible, we will contact you when capacity is available.

](*,)

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

No one has mentioned how the low dollar makes American companies much cheaper or the implications of a parent company who counts its money in Euros.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I have no inside information, but after reading threads at sprintusers.com during the former CEO's reign, it seems the CEO spent a lot of time reading forums and wasted energy trying to get even with a much of kids for trying to scam free stuff. I even felt that firing customers who called cs too much might really have had much to do with that. Sprint seemed to be a very negative company from the top down. Good customers were getting a new one ripped by Sprint employee's with the seeming consent of management. Many threads ridiculed Sprint customers or made them feel like fool's. Any complaint was mocked as just an attempt to get something, even if the customer just wanted something fixed that Sprint had screwed up like a bill or order. I definitely get the feeling that things have changed at the top and are trickleling down the corporate ladder. I say thank you Sprint for the new rom and best of luck. You have my benefit of the doubt.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I have no inside information, but after reading threads at sprintusers.com during the former CEO's reign, it seems the CEO spent a lot of time reading forums and wasted energy trying to get even with a much of kids for trying to scam free stuff. I even felt that firing customers who called cs too much might really have had much to do with that. Sprint seemed to be a very negative company from the top down. Good customers were getting a new one ripped by Sprint employee's with the seeming consent of management. Many threads ridiculed Sprint customers or made them feel like fool's. Any complaint was mocked as just an attempt to get something, even if the customer just wanted something fixed that Sprint had screwed up like a bill or order. I definitely get the feeling that things have changed at the top and are trickleling down the corporate ladder. I say thank you Sprint for the new rom and best of luck. You have my benefit of the doubt.

Very good points especially the Euro, I would think that the stumbling block maybe the rep of employee's not engaged and not caring. I have found the local sprint store to be useless and the phone service to be poor, that said every now and then I get great help from a Sprint employee who does care. German companies have a good reputation for taking care of their employees's hopefully if this happens that will "RING" true. please pardon the pun.

Good Luck to all Sprint employee's change is difficult in the short run but usually works well in the long run!!

mobo

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

I have enjoyed Sprint as my wireless carrier for the last two years. I have had for the most part, exceptional customer service, over the phone, and in the store. If Sprint was to be bought out by T-Mobile, I would take all of my services back to AT&T. T-Mobile's CS is very terrible. I would like also being able to use the Direct Connect on my Mogul. I love my Mogul even more, with the update. I automatically gor TeleNav as a GPS program, when I did the Update. I am not sure if this is because I have the "Sprint Power Vision Biz Pack" (which I am not sure of what all it intels, can't find the description on Sprint.com).

I need to know how to check if my RevA is Enabled/Disabled, like the steps to get to where I can check if I may have disabled it with the upgrade.

I was also crossing my fingers that SprintTV would be accessible with this new update, since I do have it as part of my plan. GPS is good, though.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

SDODOM, there is a thread for the RevA issue. Really, it is just a matter of perception. Think of the setting as saying Enable this or Disable that instead of enabled/disabled.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Thank you MOBO, I just consider the company stores to be repair centers or a place to actually hold a device (if they even display one.) I like to buy local, but have always found the more techical your needs, the more likely to have to go online. Most of the people on this forum will have to go online. As far as advice for Sprint, get rid of the "Cold War" secrecy mentality and open up. Even your best people look like fools when you don't let them know what's going on. Second, train your people to recognize when they are dealing with someone technical and let them cut the crap (or I should have said, "the script") and answer a simple question.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

You got that right, Sprint has a decent mix of phones, the best plans, and decent coverage, at least in NW Washington State. Now is the time for eitheir their CEO or a new owner to crank it up focus on the customer and unlock phones.

Since DT unlocks all their phones in Europe this may be the answer to stand out from Verizon (great cs and coverage), and ATT who I cannot stand. Customers are starting to demand this freedom and maybe just maybe we will see it at SPRINT first.

If DT were to buy out Sprint do not use T Mobile as a reference. Give them a chance to be different.

Not many customers will agree that recent management has worked for Sprint!



Mobo

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

DT is owned by the German Govt. They are like VZC, they have more money than they know what to do with from the monopoly on home access lines. They are the first buyout I actually read with interest of it being true. Even Google was something I called out from day one. This one has a shot.

Who said they have to. You can do a leveraged buyout and force the company to sell to you. You just have to buy a majority of their stock. For the right price anyone will sell. It just takes money.

I got in the day it launched. It is real slick. They must have the skyfire itch.

To whoever said the Euro to Dollar exchange. This is best time for a European co to enter the US. Reports also show them looking to enter Canada. Look for them to at least do one, probably not both.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

And now you can also have EVDO, Rev. A !

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

It is not looking likely. Usually the official announcement will follow shortly thereafter if something is really in the works. Although if Sprint rejected all offers DT could be working on the leveraged idea if they really want to buy them that badly.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Wildthing, if DT is owned by a foreign government, The U.S. government would have grounds to stop the purchase on national security issues. I would not like to see something as important as telecommunications owned and controlled by a foreign entity that might have reason to spy or manipulate( I know, I know, HP and other multinational companies already do this). This has nothing to do with Germany who is a good NATO ally, but with any foreign government

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

So this is probably off topic. But I don't wanna make a thread for it. Will the moguls be able to use the Wi-Max? Might be a dumb question. Just wondering?

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

It is not owned per say by the gov't. More like how AT&T was the US monopoly and the gov't was all up in their business before split in 7. They are an isolated company but they have very tight regulatory control. If the US Gov't had an issue they would have blocked the sale of voicestream (i think) to them to make T-Mob.

Yes it off topic, no they cannot.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

You realize that T-Mobile is owned by DT right? Why would the US government care?

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Wildthing, that makes more sense to me. I think timing, (think 2008 election and change of party), could change regulatory climate. Less Laize Faire, tighter control of business regulation, banking backlash, and other economic factors could upset the apple cart. Better chance of happening if it happens quickly.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

if we don't have a more substantial report on it by the end of next week I would consider it dead. Usually these things don't get leaked until the very end.

Re: Possible Sprint Buy-out by Deutsche Telekom
 

Bottom line on this thread, it's all speculation until someone makes a move. I'm an Alltel employee and trust me not a corporate kool-aid drinker. Alltel is a debt free company and is moving in the right direction, but we were just bought out by private investment moguls Goldman-Sachs and other various private shareholders.

So when those out there say nobody has the money...someone does.

The reason why it is such a great time for a buyout is because of the 2009 bandwidth auctions from analog TV going bye bye. This is going to make a mad rush because it will allow those who aren't in major cities to enter the market, and those who were shutout of rural areas to enter causing more competition whereas currently the markets are localized to two major providers for any given metro area.

If Sprint's controlling shareholders had any sense at all they would take it private like Alltel, do some damage control, and try to get the hell off of PCS bandwidth.

The likelihood of Sprint merging with T-Mobil is 1/1000000 because it would cost the parent company billions to convert from PCS CDMA to either a dual band, or produce equipment that can bridge GSM and CDMA (ie Blackberry 8830)

More likely "partnerships" AT&T because they're loosing their TDMA network due to FCC mandating Analog turndown and will no longer be able to benefit from CDMA roaming. Verizon because their presense in rural markets is non existant and PCS has a range of appx 200 miles. And finally the lightweight contender Alltel because Sprint has a presence in Chicago, Dallas Ft Worth, Houston, LA...etc...pretty much everywhere we're not.

If Sprint doesn't sell, the WiMax deal better perform phenominally because there are companies with great financial portfolios chomping at the bit to put them in the history books.