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)

Translating Steve Ballmer’s Letter to Microsoft Into Real Talk [Microsoft]

Steve Ballmer just wrote a letter to Microsoft shareholders about the future of Microsoft and to update them on how much money they’re printing with Office and the Enterprise market. The letter is mostly a bore fest but Ballmer points Microsoft’s future towards devices. Meaning, Microsoft believes in making actual stuff. More »

Yahoo starts selling half of its Alibaba stake as promised, sends $3.65 billion to giddy shareholders

Defunct Yahoo billboard

Anyone who’s been holding on to Yahoo shares through thick and thin is about to reap the rewards of that patience. As the company promised, it’s starting to sell back half its stake in Alibaba, closing the first stage of the deal with the equivalent of $7.6 billion in pure revenue. The struggling search and content firm ‘only’ pockets a net $4.3 billion after taxes and other overhead costs, but it won’t even see that much in its bank account: it’s purposefully sending $3.65 billion of that money to shareholders, both to inspire new confidence and (unofficially) to head off activist investors like Dan Loeb that might otherwise want a coup d’état. If share owners plan on using the second stage of the sale to fund a vacation to Maui, though, they’ll need to wait. Yahoo’s deal prevents it from selling half of its remaining 23 percent stake unless Alibaba files for an initial public offering, and there’s no guarantee that investors will see another dime of the proceeds.

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Yahoo starts selling half of its Alibaba stake as promised, sends $3.65 billion to giddy shareholders originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bid

Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bidBest Buy founder Richard Schulze may have stepped down as chairman of the board, but he’s certainly not out. His plan to buy the turbulent company has reached the next step — an agreement which pre-empts the formal offer. Schulze now has access to all the private numbers he’ll need to put together an investor group within the 60-day timeframe. And, if this round is unsuccessful, it’ll be next January before another bid can go to the Board of Directors, followed by direct shareholder offers if the second attempt fails. Given that Schulze owns 20 percent of Best Buy, he gets two seats-worth of voting power as long as he sticks to the agreed process. So, with a new CEO taking the reigns in September and the acquisition machinery in top gear, is there fresh hope for the big box retailer?

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Best Buy founder ever closer to finalizing company buyout bid originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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