Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
If nothing else, I hope Sprint Nextel never goes away simply for the entertainment it provides. Especially in an industry that more often than not takes itself way too seriously, having something out there that at nearly every turn brings a smile to my face is priceless. Or, worth at least a few billion dollars.
This week’s smile-inducing shenanigans involved Sprint Nextel having talks with Japan-based operator Softbank to purchase a controlling interest in our beloved No. 3 operator. The “talks,” which Sprint Nextel seemed more than happy to confess to, would see Softbank invest nearly $13 billion to gain approximately 75% of Sprint Nextel, according to reports.
This news comes just days after rumors were circulating that Sprint Nextel was set to make a counter-offer for MetroPCS, which rival T-Mobile USA said it planned to reverse acquire a few weeks ago. To this point, that counter-offer has not occurred, but with Sprint Nextel, that could change at any second.
And that’s the fun of Sprint Nextel. You just never know what those folks are thinking. Are they interested in spending billions of dollars for MetroPCS in order to protect its prepaid market share and prevent a rival from growing? Would an offer be just a defensive move to ensure that T-Mobile USA pays a premium price for MetroPCS? Is Sprint Nextel looking for a sugar-daddy to help it pay for the billions of dollars required to expand its LTE network?
With Sprint Nextel and its current predicament, all, or none, of the above could be the case. That sort of uncertainty surrounding a publicly traded and some might say “trusted” company is hilarious. It’s like there is a multi-billion dollar company that somehow manages to keep its lights on despite the sense that decisions are made by monkeys throwing darts at a dart board. How is this possible?!?
I think we are all very much aware of Sprint Nextel’s recent operational “struggles,” which have left the carrier vulnerable to the whims of the market despite its current ranking among domestic wireless carriers. We are also aware that most of those struggles were self-inflicted, caused by short-sighted leadership. It’s like watching a television show where the lead character constantly does something stupid, yet somehow manages to survive that action that would have killed someone in real life.
I fear that having someone like Softbank come in and take over leadership at Sprint Nextel would put an end to the hilarity, or at least limit the dart throwing capabilities of current management. I guess the only upside to this potential deal from an entertainment standpoint would be if they decided to somehow mash their respective names together to form something akin to bad translations found in the owner’s manual of a consumer electronics device.
I know that for the well being of Sprint Nextel’s future, that of its investors and likely that of its employees that any sort of infusion of cash would be welcome, and perhaps an infusion of new ideas at the top a good idea. I just hope that someone realizes every industry needs a barrel of monkeys to lighten the mood on occasion.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–I have on numerous occasions made disparaging comments in regards to the people that stand/camp/squat in front of Apple retail stores in the days/weeks leading up to the launch of the latest iPhone iteration. I did this for several reasons, but mostly because I still remember back to the first day of the first iPhone launch and being able to walk into an Apple store that evening to purchase an iPhone. That trip took me a total of 4 minutes, and did not require a sleeping bag nor forgoing a shower for a week.
However, this week I was alerted that perhaps I should not be so fast to judge those folks that choose the sleepingbag/no-shower route to iPhone ownership. It seems that those folks are actually building “social solidarity” by taking up residence on concrete sidewalks.
The story notes that shopping has become a “collective event,” and that by standing in line with others looking to buy the same product reinforces our decision to purchase that same product. I guess that sort of explains the activity, though I am going on record as saying that it still does not make it alright.
–Speaking of Apple, I have also noted on occasion that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company was in a prime position to take a leadership role in bolstering the U.S. economy that it has amply used to repay its investors by building some of those iPhone’s domestically. While some of the components inside of those devices do indeed come from domestic sources, and many more are designed in the United States, Apple could really pull off a marketing coup by having some of its products made here. It could also help offset some of the bad press generated by its current manufacturing facilities in China.
However, Apple seems to have been beaten to the cause by China-based PC maker Lenovo, which this week announced plans to open a computer manufacturing line in North Carolina that will create 115 jobs. I know that the job creation is just a pittance of the approximately 26,000 people employed by Lenovo across its worldwide operations, but the PR impact is savvy. The thought of a China-based company building a manufacturing facility in the United States, while that all-American company Apple is still solely reliant on Chinese workers to make products is ripe with irony.
—HTC made tablets? Huh.
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