Telecommunications

Charlie Ergen drowns in two kinds of debt

15 Nov 2024

The EchoStar founder may lose a deal to merge his satellite TV service Dish with rival DirecTV after bondholders balked at a $1.5 bln haircut. Years of bidding up assets and finagling the financial burden has tried creditors’ patience. It would be wise to come to the table now.

John Malone M&A cleanup costs minority investors

14 Nov 2024

The famed cable dealmaker’s empire is reshaping itself, as giant Charter strikes a $13 bln agreement for Liberty Broadband. It’s mostly about the buyer getting back a lump of its own shares, at an 11% discount. The transaction is great for everyone except selling shareholders.

Vodafone M&A spree leaves German problem untouched

12 Nov 2024

CEO Margherita Della Valle has spent the past 18 months remodelling the $23 bln telco by striking deals in Britain, Spain and Italy. But the shares have trailed European rivals’. To change that, the former finance chief will have to tell a better Teutonic growth story.

Verizon would be wise to hold on $20 bln deal

4 Nov 2024

Two big investors claim that broadband builder Frontier is worth more than what the wireless titan is paying for it. The numbers already look shaky and there’s no other suitor, so there’s little reason to sweeten the bid. The fraying fiber transaction is better left to unravel.

What Masayoshi Son can teach us about investing

11 Oct 2024

The Japanese tech tycoon backed future giants like China’s Alibaba as well as spectacular flops like office-sharing startup WeWork. A new biography likens him to a high-stakes gambler. But Son’s chequered career also reveals some of the skills of a successful venture capitalist.

AT&T and Dish turn lemons to bitter lemonade

30 Sep 2024

TPG is buying DirecTV from the telecom firm for $8 bln and merging it with its pay-TV rival. Both of the sellers have stumbled through costly, over-complicated dealmaking, leaving Charlie Ergen’s Dish parent on the brink. The buyout shop is extracting its price to help clean up.

John Malone wrangles runaway US cable mess

24 Sep 2024

The media mogul’s wheeling and dealing has left Liberty Broadband trading at a big discount to its assets. A mooted $14 bln share swap with internet provider Charter should unwind the fiendish complexity. Even better for him, the strategic quandary will be someone else’s problem.

UK dials up fresh signal of telco M&A optimism

13 Sep 2024

British regulators will OK Vodafone’s merger with CK Hutchison’s Three without structural remedies. Previous such deals have ended up blocked or, like Orange-MásMóvil, subject to disposals. It flags that new investment is more key than antitrust worries over consumer prices.

Verizon has done worse deals than Frontier

5 Sep 2024

That might not be a ringing endorsement of the US telecom's $20 bln purchase of fiber provider Frontier Communications. The cost savings at least cover the 37% premium. But the returns will be meager unless CEO Hans Vestberg can work wonders. At least it's not Yahoo or AOL.

Reliance can afford to sit out India’s IPO boom

30 Aug 2024

The annual meeting of Mukesh Ambani’s $245 bln behemoth offered few of the customary big-bang announcements. He's not rushing to fulfil promises made to backers KKR and Meta to list his telecom and retail units. A slim conglomerate discount makes waiting easier for everyone.

Bharti sets strange tone for India’s global push

20 Aug 2024

Tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's purchase of a $4 bln stake in BT suggests he sees better use for his capital in a mature UK firm than in India's fast-growing economy. New Delhi may be encouraging firms to go overseas; unfortunately, the first big buy in years barely looks rational.

Drahi-for-Bharti swap gives BT partial relief

12 Aug 2024

French mogul Patrick Drahi is offloading a 25% stake in the British telco worth about $4 bln to India’s Bharti. BT CEO Allison Kirkby can stop worrying about her indebted shareholder. Alongside Deutsche Telekom and Mexico’s Carlos Slim, her share register still looks crowded.

Rentokil flags debugged trend towards mega buyouts

22 Jul 2024

The $17 bln pest control company is being eyed by former BT CEO Philip Jansen, the Sunday Times says. More generous debt markets mean large takeovers are getting easier. But, while the returns on a Rentokil deal look juicy, shareholders may be wary of selling too cheaply.

Vivendi only half-solves its valuation discount

22 Jul 2024

The 11 bln euro French media group is spinning off and listing pay-TV arm Canal+ in London and ad group Havas in Amsterdam. It should unleash value. Yet the remaining listed bits, holding media assets and a ragtag of investments, may just suffer from an even more acute markdown.

Li clan take a tiny step to beat China value trap

12 Jul 2024

A plan for an additional listing, possibly in London, for their $15 bln infra company will allow investors shunning Hong Kong to buy the stock. As for CKI's larger parent, its revenue is globally diversified. The family faces a long slog to limit damage from its China roots.

Ambani wedding allows rich Indians to flaunt it

12 Jul 2024

Anant Ambani's Mumbai nuptials this week cap seven months of extravagant, star-studded celebrations. For many in the deeply inequitable country, the family’s public display of wealth sparks aspiration, not anger. Unlike in China, officials are happy for them to show it off.

Guest view: Blame poor audits on absent investors

3 Jul 2024

High-profile company failures show audit firms are failing to scrutinise corporate accounts. But shareholders are also falling short, says Natasha Landell-Mills of Sarasin & Partners. They can do more to register their displeasure with weak accountants and board members.

Vodafone India bulls get ahead of themselves

21 Jun 2024

Two big share deals show New Delhi’s decision to prop up the country’s third-largest telecom operator is starting to work. But the tripling in $13 bln Vodafone Idea’s stock looks overdone. It’s still losing customers and battling debt, all with a messy ownership structure.

Carlos Slim’s BT stake may just be a prelude

13 Jun 2024

The Mexican billionaire has taken 3% of the $17 bln UK telco. Nationalism, and Slim’s failed 2012 tilt at Dutch peer KPN, imply he won’t launch a full bid. But BT investors Patrick Drahi and Deutsche Telekom may sell their shares if he gets even keener on the group’s turnaround.

Niel can be less stingy to fulfil his salsa dream

30 May 2024

The French Iliad owner may buy out Millicom, a $4 bln Latin American telco in which he owns a 29% stake. His potential $24-a-share bid implies a tiny 2% premium. Even with the stock up nearly 40% this year, he can offer more for a growing, profitable company.