 elwoodbluesElwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in |
Wind Mobile - SoldAnthony Lacavera, the founder of Wind Mobile , with the backing of several "funds' has aquired all of Vimplecom's equity and debt in the company, for $300m. Shorty story, posted verbatim Wind Mobile’s Canadian founder is buying out its foreign owner and recapitalizing the company with the backing of several financial players, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Investors in the new structure include Canadian hedge fund West Face Capital and California-based private equity firm Tennenbaum Capital Partners.
The transaction is expected to be worth close to $300-million, with slightly more than half of that due to the consortium of investors assuming Wind’s debt, sources say.
The startup wireless carrier plans to announce the new investors Tuesday although the transaction will still require approvals from Industry Canada and the Competition Bureau.
The deal will see Globalive Capital, an investment company run by Wind’s founder Anthony Lacavera, acquire all of VimpelCom Ltd.’s direct and indirect debt and equity interests in the Canadian company.
Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd. owns a majority of Wind’s shares but has been unable to gain full control of the asset. Mr. Lacavera still controls two-thirds of the voting shares and has about a 35-per-cent economic interest in the company. Great but does that mean he has the cash to buy Moblicity? How about more spectrum? » www.theglobeandmail.com/ ··· 0606741/ |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
The Feds should GIVE Wind all of Mobi's spectrum once Mobi finally dies - as compensation for the royal fuckingover the Fed's & CRTC's so-called policies/rules caused Wind.
Or lend Mobi's spectrum for free to Wind so they can migrate to LTE.
Or at the very least, let Wind access Mobi's spectrum on the same generous terms ROBELLUS got in the early days, ie. PAYG per customer per month. |
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to elwoodblues
Good news I think. They've been innovative with their plans but I feel like their coverage has stalled. I wonder if vimplecom was holding things back or not. Time will tell. |
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elwoodbluesElwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in |
to MaynardKrebs
That's not how "The Free Markets" work |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
Sure they do.
Governments fuck them up all the time. |
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to elwoodblues
Sounds like a Canadian wants to take over the business because he sees an opportunity foreign investors do not....Those foreign investors wrote off Wind Mobile Canada as a loss not too long ago if I remember correctly... Only time will tell who is right  |
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elwoodbluesElwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in |
He founded the company |
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to graniterock
As mentioned in another article, Vimplecom stopped providing the capital and left Wind Mobile out to dry so they were not able to fund any major expansions. As well they were not a bidder in the last spectrum auction. I do think though they will acquire Mobilicitys assets. |
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 nekkidtruthYISMM
Premium Member
join:2002-05-20
London, ON
Asus RT-N66
Hitron CODA-4582
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to graniterock
said by graniterock:Good news I think. They've been innovative with their plans but I feel like their coverage has stalled. I wonder if vimplecom was holding things back or not. Time will tell. I wouldn't say they've stalled. They're moving along at a slow pace of course, but they haven't stopped. Via » windmobilecanada.tumblr.com/ |
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elwoodbluesElwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in |
It looks like a tower here and a tower there, probably using wireless revenue to fund expansion instead of lines of credit or whatnot. |
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| elwoodblues |
to BACONATOR26
said by BACONATOR26:As mentioned in another article, Vimplecom stopped providing the capital and left Wind Mobile out to dry so they were not able to fund any major expansions. As well they were not a bidder in the last spectrum auction. I do think though they will acquire Mobilicitys assets. Them and VTL are the only 2 that the Feds will allow to be purchased. |
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nekkidtruthYISMM
Premium Member
join:2002-05-20
London, ON Netgear R7000
Asus RT-N66
Hitron CODA-4582
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to elwoodblues
Yeah it certainly hasn't been crazy expansion. More so just filling in holes here and there which is definitely a good thing. A few actual expansions in between. They have actually been really smart about it and not digging themselves into some crazy debt. |
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to elwoodblues
said by elwoodblues:It looks like a tower here and a tower there, probably using wireless revenue to fund expansion instead of lines of credit or whatnot. one of those being a gigantic skyscraper of a tower at Hwy 3 / Gorham Rd in Fort Erie. |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
to elwoodblues
I've noticed that it takes longer to actually setup the call recently - wall clock time from the time I hit dial til the call recipient's line starts to ring. Anyone else notice this on Wind? |
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to elwoodblues
Globalive Capital Acquires WIND MobileTORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 16, 2014) - Today, Globalive Capital, the investment company of WIND Mobile's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Anthony Lacavera, announced that it has acquired all of VimpelCom's direct and indirect debt and equity interests in WIND Mobile. This acquisition was funded, in part, by a consortium of investors including West Face Capital, Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LG Capital Investors, Serruya Private Equity, and Novus Wireless Communications. Source [ Marketwired ] » www.marketwired.com/pres ··· 7412.htmOther source's are » www.howardforums.com/sho ··· ost-sold» online.wsj.com/articles/ ··· 10813436» twitter.com/paulvieira/s ··· 91152128» twitter.com/peternowak/s ··· 68631809» mobilesyrup.com/2014/09/ ··· mpelcom/» mobilesyrup.com/2014/09/ ··· mpelcom/» openmedia.ca/blog/you-ca ··· it-again» www.bloomberg.com/news/2 ··· ile.htmlWhat remains to be seen is whether Wind's new owners plan to spend a little cash to beef up their new acquisition in order to truly compete on a national scale. At least one telecom analyst said Tuesday he suspects the plan will likely to be sit tight, maintain the status quo and wait for the earliest chance to flip their asset to one of the incumbents [or Quebecor]. "We assume that private equity may just want to operate the asset with modest incremental funding until rules change, and Wind can be sold to an incumbent, perhaps after the 2015 Canadian federal election," Canaccord analyst Dvai Ghose said.[cbc] » www.cbc.ca/news/business ··· .2767532that is all my stuff i found out. |
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Wind recently got new roaming rates from the existing providers that allowed them to offer much better roaming rates to their customers. Makes their service offerings more attractive to users who spend time off the Wind network.
A steady build out while not taking on piles of debt could have them in a very profitable position in a few years time. Doubt they will sell out |
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markf
join:2008-01-24
Scarborough, ON |
to nekkidtruth
said by nekkidtruth:Yeah it certainly hasn't been crazy expansion. More so just filling in holes here and there which is definitely a good thing. A few actual expansions in between. They have actually been really smart about it and not digging themselves into some crazy debt. They are filling in holes, but also expanding along the 400 and 403 corridors. They recently added Brantford to their coverage area and now have a GTA to London corridor progressing to completion. |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
to elwoodblues
From Thomson Reuters....
Wind Mobile founder Anthony Lacavera said the carrier - which operates in populous Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta - would now focus on improving service and had no big expansion plans.
"The business plan has evolved," he told Reuters. "There are already four carriers in all other Canadian markets, so we don't necessarily want to enter as a fifth carrier in any of those markets."
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"Just given the number of investors it took to get this deal done at C$300 million, I can't see them then dropping upwards of C$1 billion on spectrum," he said.
Investors and analysts said the next crucial question for the industry is whether Wind can now do a deal with regional operator Quebecor, which owns cable and wireless provider Videotron.
While Quebecor loaded up on spectrum outside the province during a recent auction, it seeks further regulatory concessions before committing to expansion.
"There is a prospect of a rebel alliance here, which means that neither Videotron nor Wind would have to duplicate or replicate each other's spending," said Iain Grant, the managing director of telecom consultancy Seaboard Group.
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Given that Eastlink is active in Atlantic Canada, Videotron in Quebec, and Wind in Ontario, BC, and Alberta, if these three carriers could strike a roaming agreement for their customers, it would be pretty good for all concerned. |
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I don't see the point of an agreement, wind's network is utter CRAP in places where there are ACTUALLY PEOPLE to use it (were talking less than 1 meg speeds at best)
The videotron deal MIGHT make sense (since ALL devices would work fine on both networks and people from each provinces visit the other one) The low roaming rates would probably make agreements with carriers like sasktel or eastlink useless because wayyyyy more people visit ontario than vice versa and most of there devices couldn't even work on wind |
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to elwoodblues
I hope they continue as Wind, if they are sold to the other leeches I'll kill my account after that no more cell phone for me, will just have to carry a pad with me and look for free wifi to check email + look forward to more sanity. |
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 GuspazGuspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC |
to elwoodblues
Too little, too late. They missed the 700MHz auction, which was basically their one chance to solve their dead-end-spectrum problem (where they lack enough spectrum to ever upgrade most of their network).
They may have a shot if they can buy Mobilicity, which would give them the spectrum they need (albeit not nearly as good spectrum), but Videotron seems to want to buy them. But even if Wind buys Mobilicity, they're still locked out of a quarter of the country by population. |
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MaynardKrebsWe did it. We heaved Steve. Yipee.
Premium Member
join:2009-06-17 |
Guess we all have to fuck like minks in the ROC to boost our population and make Quebec insignificant by comparison.  |
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GuspazGuspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC |
to elwoodblues
Won't help their spectrum woes. The next AWS auction is going to be for pretty poor quality spectrum compared to the 700MHz.
Perhaps a partnership with VTL is in the books. VTL has the nation-wide 700MHz spectrum, but doesn't necessarily have the money to build-out a network (hence why they were looking into *buying* WIND). WIND has the network, but doesn't have the spectrum (or possibly even the money to buy the spectrum) to move to LTE or improve coverage... |
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yyzlhr
join:2012-09-03
Scarborough, ON |
to eeeaddict
Videotron has a pretty cozy relationship with Rogers. I don't think they want to jeopardize that by teaming up with Wind. |
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 Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON |
Gone to Guspaz
Premium Member
2014-Sep-17 10:52 pm
to Guspaz
said by Guspaz:Too little, too late. They missed the 700MHz auction, which was basically their one chance to solve their dead-end-spectrum problem (where they lack enough spectrum to ever upgrade most of their network). It'll be interesting to see if they're still around for 600MHz. |
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bklass
Premium Member
join:2012-02-06
Canada |
to elwoodblues
actually it is. |
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