MetroPCS shareholders vote to approve T-Mobile merger

It hit a few snags along the way, but T-Mobile's merger with MetroPCS now appears to be all but a done deal. Bloomberg is reporting that MetroPCS shareholders voted to approve the deal this morning, following a recommendation from two previously opposed shareholder advisory firms that the merger be approved last week -- and approval from the board before that. According to Bloomberg, the final terms of the deal give T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom a 74 percent stake in the new company, with MetroPCS shareholders receiving a $1.5 billion cash payment. Most notably for T-Mobile, the deal brings nine million new prepaid customers into the fold, as well as the all-important wireless spectrum that MetroPCS currently owns.

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Source: Bloomberg

MetroPCS board approves Deutsche Telekom’s merger offer, urges shareholders to do the same

After delaying a vote on T-Mobile's final merger bid a few days ago, MetroPCS' board of directors has voiced unanimous approval and is encouraging shareholders to vote yes as well. Deutsche Telekom's offer would reduce MetroPCS' debt by $3.8 billion as well as slash the interest rate on that debt by half a point. These measures should increase both the carrier's overall value and cash flow -- hopefully that will help in building out LTE more quickly. For folks fearing that T-Mo will suffer from buyer's remorse, don't. The offer also stipulates that Deutsche Telekom will refrain from selling its shares in the combined company for 18 months. It remains to be seen if stock owners will be convinced enough to vote yes on April 23rd; and so the saga continues.

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Via: TechnoBuffalo

T-Mobile improves its bid for MetroPCS, prompts MetroPCS to delay its vote

MetroPCS street ad

While executives at T-Mobile and MetroPCS may be ready to close their merger, some shareholders aren't -- major advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services has been recommending that MetroPCS investors vote against the deal unless T-Mobile can sweeten the pot. Consider it sweetened. T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom has made a "final offer" that would slash the debt owed by the post-merger company by $3.8 billion (to $11.2 billion), reduce the interest rate on that debt by half a point and prevent Deutsche Telekom from selling its shares in the merged firm for 18 months, rather than the original six. The reshuffled finances may not sound very exciting on the surface, but they're enough to put MetroPCS in a tizzy: the carrier is delaying a shareholder vote on the deal from April 12th to the 24th to allow for some reevaluations. There's no guarantees that the new offer is enough to please the naysayers. Still, we'd venture that T-Mobile will get a warmer reaction than the last time it tried a corporate alliance.

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: Deutsche Telekom IR (Twitter)

Evernote premium adds document search, Deutsche Telekom customers get one year free subscription

Evernote's premium tier adds document search feature, Deutsche Telekom customers get free subscription for a year

Evernote's premium package adds a bunch of extra features to the online jotter if you're willing to pay the price. Now though, if you've got a mobile, fixed-line or broadband contract with Deutsche Telekom, a deal between the companies means you'll be able to skip that 40 euro annual charge (around $52) and enjoy the power-user suite free for a year. Don't get down if you've already forked out, though, as current premium subscribers can just tag that extra year onto the end of their cycle. In addition, Evernote has added another feature for premium users worldwide it calls "Document Search," which'll rifle through various note-attached files created in MS Office, iWork or OpenOffice. If you happen to be on Deutsche Telekom's books, you can sign up for your free premium account at the link below. Then again, you've got until the back end of September 2014 to claim, so you could always clip this and get to it later.

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Evernote (1), (2)

Via Licensing welcomes China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom to its LTE supergroup

Via Licensing welcomes China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom

Via Licensing is amassing quite a deep well of patents from which its members able to pull. All in the name of keeping standards-essential LTE technology accessible to those willing to play ball. Now China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom are joining the ranks of industry giants like AT&T and NTT DoCoMo in an effort to guard themselves against litigation and ease the act of licensing each other's patents. Others have tried and failed where Via Licensing seems to be succeeding in building a coalition around sharing standard-essential patents. Though, while plenty of big names have signed on, there are still quite a few notable holdouts.

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Source: TechCrunch

Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann leaving by the end of 2013, CFO to take over

Deutsche Telekom CEO Ren Obermann leaving by the end of 2013, CFO to take over

Not every CEO makes a graceful exit -- just ask HP. It's clear that Deutsche Telekom chief René Obermann would rather leave on his own terms, as he's orchestrating his departure up to a year before it takes place. The 16-year veteran expects to leave the company before the end of 2013, and the company has already lined up CFO Timotheus Höttges as the replacement at the start of 2014. Obermann says he's leaving to get closer to on-the-ground operations than possible while he's leading a telecom giant. Whether or not that's the full story, he likely won't mind leaving some of DT's uncertainties behind him, including the fallout from the blocked T-Mobile merger with AT&T as well as the long-term fates of both EE's rollout and the MetroPCS acquisition. When the company's Supervisory Board chairman says he wishes Obermann would stay, however, there's little doubting that this CEO transition is happening on friendlier terms than we've known in recent memory.

Continue reading Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann leaving by the end of 2013, CFO to take over

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Croatian Telecom piloting 1Gbps TeraStream network with Cisco behind the wheel

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Chattanooga has it, and soon Zagreb may have it too: Yesterday, Hravatski Telecom, the Croatian unit of Deutsche Telekom, demoed its TeraStream network capable of 1Gbps, with a 400Gbps network capacity. Cisco is supplying the network solution, which is based on the IPv6 protocol and provides voice, IPTV and Internet access. As is so often the case with new blazing networks, TeraStream is still in the pilot phase, with user-experience testing in the country's capital carrying into 2013. Those of you who speak Croatian can skip past the break for an explanatory video from HV.

Continue reading Croatian Telecom piloting 1Gbps TeraStream network with Cisco behind the wheel

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Via: Gadgeterija

Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile / MetroPCS merger to be completed by June 2013

Deutsche Telekom MetroPCS merger to be completed by June 2013

Just precisely how the T-Mobile / MetroPCS merger will pan out still seems yet to be decided. What is clear, however, is that majority share-holder, Deutsche Telekom, hope to have the deal done and dusted between April and June next year. CFO for the German giant, Timotheus Hoettges, told Boersenzeitung that we'll have to wait until the second quarter of 2013 before one of the parties will have to start ordering new stationary and corporate polo shirts. In the meantime he was keen to point out that not all current financial arrangements should feel ause for concern, noting shareholders wouldn't have their remuneration policy affected by the merger, thanks to the spiffy financial year it's had.

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Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile / MetroPCS merger to be completed by June 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS agree on $1.5 billion T-Mobile merger (updated)

Apparently the "significant issues" that stood in the way of a prospective T-Mobile and MetroPCS deal couldn't have been too onerous. Just a day after acknowledging that talks were underway both boards have approved the deal according to the Wall Street Journal. Details of the deal haven't been officially announced yet, but Financial Times Deutschland are reporting that the two carriers will be combined into a single unit in which Deutsche Telekom will hold 74 percent of shares. MetroPCS will have a 26 percent stake in the company and receive a $1.5 billion check for its troubles. Expectations are that this will put the kibosh on a recent deal T-Mobile struck with Crown Castle to lease its mobile towers for $2.4 billion. The new larger carrier will maintain the T-Mobile branding with new CEO John Legere at the helm, though, it appears the deal is structured as a reverse merger. Meaning that MetroPCS is in essence taking over T-Mobile and not the other way around.

Even with its combined subscriber base, the new T-Mobile will lag Sprint in the battle for AT&T and Verizon's table scraps. However, it will finally give Deutsche Telekom the graceful exit from the US market that its been so desperately seeking for some time. This merger with a much smaller competitor is unlikely to raise the ire of regulators and will allow the German company to reduce its involvement and investment in a slow controlled manner by selling off stocks. We're still awaiting official announcements from both companies and will update as the statements roll in.

Update: Official PR from T-Mobile and a video statement from CEO Legere are now waiting for you after the break. There's a few new interesting details, including that MetroPCS's CFO will be holding on to his position post merger. Interestingly, even though the carriers will become one company, for the foreseeable future they will maintain separate pools of customers. However, we wouldn't be surprised to see that change as the LTE rollout accelerates and gives T-Mobile a true 4G offering. As Legere notes in the clip below, this is just the first step and the deal isn't expected to close until sometime during the first half of 2013.

Update 2: As part of the strategy moving forward the new company plans to move customers off MetroPCS' CDMA network and on to T-Mobile's GSM frequencies for 3G service by 2015. The spectrum would then be repurposed to build out an LTE network.

Continue reading Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS agree on $1.5 billion T-Mobile merger (updated)

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Deutsche Telekom and MetroPCS agree on $1.5 billion T-Mobile merger (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deutsche Telekom mulling T-Mobile / MetroPCS marriage

Deutsche Telekom mulling TMobile  MetroPCS marriage

Well, turns out that rumors of a MetroPCS and T-Mobile merger weren't completely off base. While we wouldn't expect Deutsche Telekom to announce the sale of its US property any time soon, the German giant has confirmed that its holding talks with America's sixth largest mobile operator to combine the two networks. The prospective deal would involve combining the two into a single entity, with Deutsche Telekom as the majority shareholder. Of course there are significant obstacles in the way, including divergent network technologies and distinctly different marketing strategies. This is, of course, just the latest scene in the ongoing piece of corporate theater that almost saw the struggling magenta carrier absorbed by AT&T. We'll of course be following closely to see if such a move would sit a little better with government regulators. The complete statement from Deutsche Telekom Metro PCS confirming the talks is after the break.

Continue reading Deutsche Telekom mulling T-Mobile / MetroPCS marriage

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Deutsche Telekom mulling T-Mobile / MetroPCS marriage originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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