Investopedia: DISH Network Makes Another Bid For Mobile

It's hard not to give some credit to DISH Network’s (Nasdaq:DISH) leadership for realizing that they've taken the satellite TV concept about as far as they can. Instead, the company has been acknowledging (for some time now) that the company needed a pretty significant strategic transformation- one that would allow the company to leverage its wireless spectrum and compete more directly in the growing mobile broadband market.

To that end, Monday's bid for Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) is bold, but not entirely surprising. In fact, I suggested a few months ago that DISH's bid for Clearwire (Nasdaq:CLWR) could be as much about forcing Sprint to the table as any particular desire to own Clearwire. Now the question is whether or not Sprint's board welcomes the overture, and whether Sprint's other bidder, Japan's Softbank, decides to up the ante.

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Seeking Alpha: America Movil Still A Buy After Painful Margin Squeeze

For short-term investors, America Movil's (AMX) fourth quarter report was a wreck. For long-term investors, though, I don't think it changes much of anything. Weaker margins are never a good thing, but America Movil is following a long-term gameplan for wireless voice and data growth, and its rivals are going to hard-pressed to compete so fiercely on price indefinitely. America Movil is by no means the growth stock it once was, but today's steep earnings-induced decline and long-term plan make it a more interesting name for GARP investors.

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America Movil Still A Buy After Painful Margin Squeeze

Investopedia: Dish Network May Not Be Cheap, But It'll Be Interesting

Like DIRECTV (Nasdaq:DTV), Dish Network (Nasdaq:DISH) must face the difficult reality that pay TV is not only a more competitive market with the entry of AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ). It also must compete with on-demand options offered by a host of services like Hulu and Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX). Although the company doesn't look like a tremendous value today, it has a shrewd and savvy management team that could make things interesting.

Tough Times in Pay TV
For all of Dish Network's potential strategic options (more on this in a moment), the company's core satellite pay TV business has serious challenges. While Dish Network has a solid low-cost platform and offers products such as "Hopper" to its customers, the company has nevertheless been losing subs.

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Seeking Alpha: Is America Movil Still A LatAm Growth Story?

Like people, companies change as they grow older. America Movil (AMX) was once a premier Latin American growth stock at a time when retail investors had few good options for investing in that region. Since then, both the company and its markets have matured, and investors now have numerous other options for investing in emerging markets. Given the company's maturing model and its ventures into Europe, is America Movil still a growth stock and is it still worth owning?

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Is America Movil Still A LatAm Growth Story?

Investopedia: Should Investors Direct Their Portfolio Toward DIRECTV?

Investors with a few gray hairs may remember when DIRECTV (Nasdaq:DTV) was a controversial stock, with plenty of doubters as to whether this company's satellite-based pay TV approach could ever make hay against likes of Comcast (Nasdaq:CMCSA). That debate is long over, and the company has proven that it can generate pretty significant amounts of cash flow. That doesn't mean that the stock still doesn't offer some controversy, though, with the debates now shifted as to whether the company can withstand the evolving competition of the pay TV market in the United States and continue to grow in Latin America.

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Investopedia: AT&T's Bold Bid For T-Mobile Ends In Failure

Maybe there's some truth to the aphorism "nothing ventured, nothing gained", but AT&T (NYSE:T) has come up snake-eyes on its latest roll of the dice. In what had become not much of a surprise at all, AT&T announced Monday evening that it was abandoning its bid to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG's (OTCBB:DTEGY) U.S. operator T-Mobile because of what increasingly looked like insurmountable regulatory objections.

The News  
AT&T is abandoning its bid to combine with T-Mobile and become an even larger player in the U.S. mobile services market. This outcome is not all that surprising. Apart from the howls of self-interested parties like Sprint (NYSE:S), ample regulatory objections and blockades were raised to this deal. There's no doubt that it would have represented considerable consolidation (blending the No.2 and No.4 providers), though T-Mobile's position as something of a weak sister in the industry may have led AT&T to believe it could get the deal done. (For related reading, see How To Pick The Best Telecom Stocks.)

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Investopedia: Industry At A Glance - Pay TV

On the surface it may not seem like there would be much growth left in the U.S. pay TV market. Penetration rates are already north of 90% and most Americans consider cable (or satellite) TV service to be just as much a necessity as electricity or gas. Moreover, with the decline of dial-up, pay TV carriers also provide the entryway to Internet access for most people in this country.

And yet, that doesn't mean that there isn't growth potential or vibrant competition. Satellite providers, cable TV providers and phone companies are stepping up their battle to offer more or less the same services to the same customer base. What's more, alternate online options are reducing some of the distribution power of this sector, while more and more distributors also see themselves as content providers. Oh, and there's this tech company called Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) that may have some ideas of its own about how TV service should look in the future.


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Investopedia: AT&T Gives Deutsche Telekom Its Out

German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (OTC:DTEGY) has been trying for years to figure out a strategy for its U.S. business T-Mobile. That dilemma may be at an end now, as the company has agreed to sell T-Mobile to American rival AT&T (NYSE:T) in a $39 billion deal that combines cash and stock. 

Terms of the Deal
In a surprising move, AT&T announced that the two companies had reached an agreement whereby AT&T will pay $25 billion in cash and $14 billion in stock for Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile subsidiary, the #4 player in the U.S. wireless space with roughly 34 million total subscribers. Interestingly, AT&T will not be taking on any of the debt associated with T-Mobile.

At the stated price, AT&T is paying about 7x T-Mobile's trailing EBITDA - a premium to Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and Clearwire (Nasdaq:CLWR) (which has negative EBITDA), but in line with MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS) and Leap Wireless (Nasdaq:LEAP). (For related reading, see A Clear Look At EBITDA,)

The Logic of the Deal
It will probably take a year or more for this deal to close, but if it does AT&T will become the #1 wireless provider in the United States. Not only are those subs valuable to AT&T, but the deal helps addressed some of the company's spectrum needs as well. The deal will also give AT&T certain operating synergies, not only be eliminating duplicate functions and personnel, but also giving the company greater bargaining power with vendors.



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TiVo Gets Scrambled

Do not count your chickens (or lawsuit settlements) before they are hatched. That would seem to be the lesson to TiVo (Nasdaq:TIVO) shareholders from a surprising court decision on Friday, May 11. Due to a federal appellate court's decision to re-review the company's case against Dish Network (Nasdaq:DISH), the stock lost almost half of its value in a single day.

What a Long Strange Trip It Has BeenTiVo is largely credited for the development of digital video recorders (DVR), one of the more popular add-ons for most dedicated TV-watchers. While TiVo sells its services directly, they also partner with companies like DIRECTV (NYSE:DTV) and Comcast (Nasdaq:CMSCA) to sell these services.

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