Equity4all

No End to Sprint's Hemorrhaging in Sight

If S is true to form, they will drop the Boost rate plans to $20/month! This strategy would be consistent with the one they employed immediately following the merger.

They dropped Nxtl's rate plans from $70/month to $50/month ostensibly to reduce the number of rate plans and negate the difference between networks. What they did was to diminish the value of Direct Connect!! LOL

S doesn't get it, never did, never will. The same BOD who chooses executives and determines strategy, is still at the helm and hasn't changed its spots!

S's BOD has done an excellent job of managing this company over the last 20 years! Answer: NOT!

Eight Reasons Bank of America Is Going to $20

"5) Earlier this week, Bank of America actually paid back $402 million in a TARP dividend payment to the U.S. government. If this doesn’t show their commitment to repaying taxpayers I don’t know what would."

Jason, did they really have a choice? If they didn't pay the Preferred Div to the G, they would most certainly be a prime candidate for nationalization regardless of the political and socioeconomic tenets espoused by the administration.

I have several hundred thousand dollars in CD's maturing this week and if BAC does not offer competitive rates I will be re-directing those funds elsewhere. Assuming I am not alone, I believe that there will be other depositors who will do the same thing as me, and when they all do it in concert, it will adversely affect BAC's capital ratios.

Disclosure: I hold BAC stock and am a long term client. I love the services they render and believe in them for the long run; but, I need to protect my money and get a decent rate of return with as little risk as possible.

Madoff, Stanford Sagas: New Twists

They were probably creating the false financial reports for Madoff and his Ponzi scheme investors. LOL


On Feb 21 01:20 AM pelican wrote:

> "All of which begs the question of what were his employees doing?
> Did they just show up, surf the Internet and text friends for all
> those years?"
>
>
> Exactly! I was thinking the same thing. IMO, this thing is too
> big for just one person to run things.
>
>
>
>

Madoff, Stanford Sagas: New Twists

Agreed. The investor starts out -2% for every layer of investment. Morale of the story: Don't let anyone touch your money! They can give advice and charge a fee and if the advice is good they can give more and charge a fee; but, if the advice is poor, the investor is free to fire them and get advice elsewhere.


On Feb 21 08:27 AM Vuke wrote:

> How did this stuff ever get off the ground? The very idea of giving
> your money to someone, who then gives it to someone else, who then
> uses it to gamble is nutty beyond belief. Any "regulator" who swallowed
> this story is either in on it or a fool.

Madoff, Stanford Sagas: New Twists

His $7M donation to PACs has so far, protected him from having to cough up $110M in back taxes and, it's tax deductible! What a great return on investment!

We the honest and responsible, have been snookered by the dishonest and reckless!

Dan Hesse, Sprint, and the Anatomy of Taking a CEO Job

S employee:

Dan Hesse, who I believe is a good man, finds himself in an untenable position; but, he can I believe, turn your ship around if he has enough time to enact his strategy, if it is executed properly and if the financial picture of the company can be rectified and held together long enough for him to meet his objectives.

If you don't like where you are remember this; you live in America, where you can exercise the right to work wherever and for whomever you want. Instead of writing negative things about the company you work for, I would suggest that you seek another employer since it is apparent, that you are psychologically defeated and that is neither good for you, or the company you work for. You should do yourself and your employer a favor, and exercise the aforementioned right of employment that is afforded you by this great country we live in, and move on.

IMHO S's financial picture is bleak. It WAS a result of the merger. My opinion is that GF, TD, MA and PS executed their short-term strategy and succeeded at the company's and shareholders' expense. That strategy was to:

Lever Nxtl with no intention of ever paying down the debt, but to perform bond exchanges ad infinitum until a buyer could be found to foist the debt and company upon; put together a specious spectrum swap transition plan for iDEN that is now S's bane, have S pay way too much for Nxtl's assets and the cadre of execs would stay on board long enough so that all could be paid handsomely while exercising stock options of the combined company's 'watered stock', and then bail out multi-millionaires just before the write-down of massive Good-Will was reported, never to work again. That was it in a nutshell and it worked well for them but hurt a lot of people who trusted that they were in it for the long haul.

Of course all have one thing in common. Cupidity and the knowledge to use OPM to garner control and power. People are predictably attracted to the money, and really don't care where it comes, ill-gotten or otherwise, as long as it is directed to them.

This is of course my own opinion regarding your company's past and present situation. I do not and have never owned S stock nor do I or have I ever shorted it. This is simply an expression of my opinion based on anecdotal data dots that I have connected.

Good luck with your job search.

Dan Hesse, Sprint, and the Anatomy of Taking a CEO Job

God speed Dan! You are a good man and deserve to succeed; however, your predecessors left you with a financial mess on your hands and that is probably what you couldn't tell anyone since it was not publicly known at that point. Saleh kept buying back stock and paying dividends when he should have been paying down debt. But, Saleh is from the cowboy school of finance, lever up the company, collect a nice fat pay check, and cash out once the company is sold, if it lasts that long. Their's was a risky short-term strategy that saddled Sprint with massive debt, dated iDEN network that needs to transition spectrum, and now execution problems in a slowing economy. You didn't deserve this but I believe you can turn it around if you can keep the financial side of the ship from listing and sinking you.

God bless and good luck!

WhatsTrading's Weekly Top 5 Options Ideas: Euro, Sprint, Freeport-McMoran, WaMu, GDX

S calls, eyebrow raising? Sounds like someone had some insider information. Where is the SEC?

Wireless Carriers: Sprint and T-Mobile

IMHO: S results are relative, relative to their own performance and relative to their competition which is where I believe the focus should be. They compare their churn rate against their own measurement as opposed to an industry wide comparison. They are 100 basis points higher than the 2 leaders T/VZ. Hesse is right about churn being the single most important metric regarding company performance since a 2% churn rate translates into an 11% decline in sales. However, even if he gets the churn rate down to 1%, which I doubt he can accomplish without a severe drop in ARPU or an increase in phone subsidies, that would still translate into a ~5% drop in sales. The have already mined the high-end of the ARPU curve and will eventually deplete the number of customers who can afford $99/month. At their current sales run rate and their debt to EBITDA ratio climbing, they may be close to violating their debt covenants which would not bode well for the equity holders.

Their revenue is declining at >11% y-o-y. Wireline is not a big contributor to gross margins and only comprises ~15% of gross sales revenue.

Qwest leaving for VZ, Embarq leaving for unnamed carrier, Federal government GSA contracts lost, problems with the MVNO, a churn rate that when bi-annualized (assumes 2 year contracts) translates into a 24% defection rate. In order to grow the business they must run faster than 24% adds just to stay even. I don't see that happening.

Again, IMHO, I might look at the bonds but certainly not the stock. I believe that the bonds have more upside than the stock should DH turn this ship around.

One more thing: Leverage works both ways. Nxtl took advantage of high leverage when they were profitable and the stock popped as a result; but, leverage can also magnify and amplify losses. Just something to keep in mind. The time to buy highly leveraged, high beta stocks is in the beginning of an economic recovery. We are nowhere near that point yet. Just my humble opinion.

Earnings Preview: Sprint Nextel Corporation

Don't get your hopes up. If history is any guide, they return 4% on equity so, that should translate into $0.2/share in a good year. If I give them a PE of 20 (which I wouldn't since they haven't demonstrated that they can grow with the big boys) that would give them a share price of $4. But, since they have been shrinking rather than growing the top and bottom lines, I would give them a much lower PE ratio which of course would further depress the stock price.

As Cramer aptly stated the other night; stocks that sell for less than $10 can cost you big time, and they are selling for less than $10 for a reason. A $1 move on a $10 stock is a 10% move. As the price declines, subsequent decrements are magnified in percentage terms.
Most of the time 'fallen Angels' such as S are there due to poor management, culture clashes and poor execution in all functional areas. A good example of that would be Lucent before its merger with Alcatel and Alcatel Lucent after the merger. Mergers don't save bad companies.

Another thing to look at is their debt to equity ratio and how many times they cover interest payments. Their bonds are rated junk. Therefore, I might take a stab at their bonds, but certainly not their stock.

I am sure that many of you are S employees trying to hype the company and move the stock price in a northerly direction. My advice would be to go out and win new customers while taking care of your existing one's and stay off of these message boards. Let your actions and the financial fundamentals do your talking. So far, the results and performance of this company and its stock price is abysmal at best.

My advice, go buy a cd...at least you'll sleep well.