Skip to main content

Sprint - next merger target ?

There was a news item about D. Telecom is looking at possible takeover or merger with Sprint Nextel. I am sure lot of you may have missed this item in the flood-gate of news (and blogs) on Yahoo Microsoft.

However if you are interested in next takeover saga, start looking at Sprint for following reasons:

  • Stock is down from above $20 to $8. It went all the way down below $6 when I noticed the stock (and took a small position)
  • It is # 3 in US wireless market with over 40 million subscribers
  • Have excellent service provider network
  • Have a good but tired brand
  • In last few quarters, it has been struggling and hence stock got crushed
  • Provides an excellent opportunity as merger or takeover target
Now let's see what price Sprint could get sold:
  • It has enterprise value of $42-44 B with debt at $22 B
  • With revenues of $40B and revenue multiple of about 2, it can command enterprise valuation of $80B (ATT has EV/revenue multiple of 2.5 and Verizon has 1.5). At 1.5 multiple, it can command valuation of $60 B giving stock price of about $13-14 at low end and $20 at high end
  • Alltel which got bought by PE at $27B has about 11 million subscribers. This results into valuation of 2500 per subscriber. Sprint has 40 million subscribers. However the churn rate is high for Sprint subscribers. So if we apply 1500 to 2000 per subscriber, it comes to similar valuation of $60B to $ 80B ($14-20)
  • Of course there are quite a few risks such as regulatory approval, mgmt churn, subscriber churn, heavy capital investment needs. But without risks there are no gains
So if you are willing to take risk, Sprint would be a good buy at $8 with potential return of 50% in 18 months

/Shyam

Comments

Anonymous said…
You dont respond to my comments anymore... as seemingly the only reader of your blog that comments do you not want to have a discussion... Am i the lowley Cal State Acct. undergrad below intellingent conversation.

Hey ever seen this chart from the fed

non-borrowed reserves are -50bil for the first time in history (never before negative print)

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BOGNONBR?rid=19

I suppose if you dont respond Ill just assume you dont want to have an intelligent conversation
Shyam said…
That's not the case. It's just that your comments need to be on the topic of blog I wrote. Please feel free to comment on Sprint which is topic of this blog writing and we can have some discussion
Anonymous said…
Sorry Shyam---

I just saw the title of your blog "Shayam's commentary on Markets" and assumed that you would be interested in discussing macro trends and news events regardless of the articles you write. I know a lot about mortgages, banks, accounting and securitization. I am trying to broaden my scope in macro trends and have branched more into playing broad indices although still i hold some focused plays. I am also pretty profeciant in risk managment and options trading.

Anyway it seems you are more interested in Risk Arb plays which is cool. Again I suggest the book Den of Theives. Great book all about Milken, Lasker Bletzbergs, boesky, icahn and even a bit of T. Boone. Boesky was the biggest badest risk arb ever. If you are interested in the mechanics of merger or risk arb, as well as how they played it back in the day this book will be like financial porn to you.

Anyway if you would like to discuss and debate macro trends that is fine with me, however talking about S doesn't really interest me. I know nothing about how wireless companies are run and valued. I can decipher and devour their financial statements etc... but when it comes to arb'ing a potential merger with DT ill take a pass.

Again I would enjoy discussing the markets in general if you would like too. Did you see Big Ben's speech and those charts he used. Pretty crazy IMO that they want to loosen GSE standars even further and lift capital requirments even more. For god sacks these guys are already gear at like 20x even more depending on calculations. 20x leverage is freaking insane.

well if you wanna discuss markets let me know

otherwise good luck to you

Popular posts from this blog

2024: The year of.....

Wishing you a joyful New Year filled with laughter, love, and unforgettable moments, surrounded by cherished family and friends. May the 2024 bring similar gains as in 2023! I had great 2 weeks break with travels to Turkey with family and then solo trip to Palm Springs. Both places are amazing and definitely worth a visit if you get chance. Talking about gains in 2023 - Here is recap of 2023.. Inflation fallen below 4% and heading towards 3% Unemployment firmly below 4% Real wages growing above 4% GDP growth around 3% Markets: S&P notching one of the best year with 24% gains while Nasdaq doing even better with 40% gains thanks to Magnificent-7 (or TAMMANNA) many of which had triple digit gains My personal recommendations did exceptionally well - many of which were up by high double digits (e.g. INTC) and some of them had triple digit gains (e.g. META) All in all - 2023 was great year.  As calendar changed to 2024, what's in store for new year? This is election year in many coun

Roaring 20s....Again!

About 2 years back coming out of COVID pandemic, I wrote blog titled " New Roarin' 20s.."  It covered what happened in 1920s and what are the factors now which would trigger new roaring 20s. Do check out the blog...almost all factors are valid even now. 2022 went sideways due to inflation pressures which triggered historical steep rate hikes by central banks which led to tech companies taking more measured approach and laying off 200,000 employees....all of that changed in Nov'22 when ChatGPT was launched...even though I had mentioned AI/ML as one of the factor in my previous blog, ChatGPT really captured the imagination of the world and changed the outlook of AI instantly similar to what Netscape did with the Internet and iPhone did with the mobile. The singular concept of "Language is the Interface" made AI accessible instantly to billions of normal people....And now without mentioning AI, no talk starts or ends in tech world..and despite onsite of most-aw

It was not meant to be...

I imagined today' day (Nov 19, 2023) little differently than what it turned out to be..had a watch gathering at my place with few friends for India vs Aus ICC Cricket World Cup Final. Both teams deserved to be in the final - India winning all games in this tournament and Aus winning last 8 games after initially losing 2 games at start of tournament. The match was being played at the biggest stadium in the world (over 132,000 capacity) and over billion people tuning in...maybe most watched single sports event ever. After Australia won the toss, they choose to field (that's what most likely India wanted). India started well but then wickets kept dropping and India ended with total of 240 all out. That's when all of us knew that the dream of winning third world cup is over...despite one of the best bowling squad India ever had....The score was just not enough even for the best bowling to defend against one of the most professional and mentally strong team....No wonder Australi