President Donald Trump is holding a call with seven of the biggest U.S. internet and mobile phone providers on Tuesday to talk about how the networks are holding up as tens of millions of Americans work from home. The Federal Communications Commission has said U.S. networks are performing well and has granted temporary access to additional spectrum blocks to help providers manage traffic. AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications Inc, Charter Communications Inc, Comcast, Altice USA , T-Mobile and Sprint Corp are expected to take part in the call.

New York, April 03, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has upgraded three classes of notes sponsored by Sprint Corporation (Sprint). The Series 2016-1 Class A-1 notes and Series 2018-1 Class A-1 and Class A-2 notes were issued under the same master trust and are backed by a single 30-year lease to Sprint Communications, Inc. (SCI) for a portfolio of wireless spectrum licenses and are further enhanced by guarantees from T-Mobile US, Inc. (T-Mobile US), T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile, Ba2 stable), Sprint and certain operating subsidiaries.

Firm's largest sales of the 1st quarter Continue reading...

Moody’s isn’t impressed, but maybe it should be: SoftBank has holdings worth almost triple its current stock price.

New York, April 03, 2020 -- Moody's Investors Service, ("Moody's") has upgraded three classes of notes sponsored by Sprint Corporation (Sprint). The Series 2016-1 Class A-1 notes and Series 2018-1 Class A-1 and Class A-2 notes were issued under the same master trust and are backed by a single 30-year lease to Sprint Communications, Inc. (SCI) for a portfolio of wireless spectrum licenses and are further enhanced by guarantees from T-Mobile US, Inc. (T-Mobile US), T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile, Ba2 stable), Sprint and certain operating subsidiaries.

Founder of Renaissance Technologies releases portfolio update Continue reading...

Dish Network Corp. (Nasdaq: DISH) has confirmed to Denver Business Journal that it has laid off employees because of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. “Due to the current economic climate, combined with changing needs of our customers and how we best serve them, Dish has made the difficult decision to reevaluate our organization," the company said in a statement. The company has about 4,000 employees in the Denver area and 16,000 worldwide, according to DBJ research.

Guru's firm releases 1st-quarter portfolio updates Continue reading...

Mike Sievert says New T-Mobile will start "lighting up 5G" immediately now that the $37 billion merger has wrapped

The diversified telecom giant has been downgraded by analysts despite growth drivers Continue reading...

Highly rated U.S. corporate bond issuers raised a record $110.502 billion this week, according to Refinitiv IFR data, as fears that the coronavirus pandemic may limit access to capital markets stoked borrowing. A $19 billion bond from T-Mobile to finance its acquisition of rival telecom Sprint on Thursday helped push this week's issuance past the record $109.1 billion set last week. The market for new investment-grade debt has boomed since the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department last week announced monetary and fiscal stimulus to help contain the economic fallout from the pandemic.

T-Mobile said CEO John Legere is stepping down earlier than expected. He's been replaced by new CEO Mike Sievert.

The deal comes after a long legal battle between multiple state attorneys general which argued that a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint would be anticompetitive. The combined company will now operate under the T-Mobile name and will trade on the NASDAQ as "TMUS." The deal also enables T-Mobile and Sprint to join their high-band and low-band spectrum that could allow a faster roll-out of national 5G.

Merger arbitrage specialist releases first-quarter portfolio Continue reading...

Moody's Investors Service (Moody's) has assigned Baa3 ratings to T-Mobile USA, Inc.'s (T-Mobile) new senior secured credit facilities (Secured Credit Facilities), comprised of a $4 billion five-year senior secured revolving credit facility (undrawn) and $4 billion seven-year senior secured term loan, and proposed senior secured notes (Secured Notes) of various maturities in USD and/or Eurodollar denominations. Moody's has affirmed T-Mobile's Ba2 corporate family rating (CFR) and Ba2-PD probability of default rating (PDR) and downgraded its senior unsecured rating to Ba3 from Ba2, concluding a review for downgrade on these notes that was initiated on April 29, 2018.

President Donald Trump spoke with the heads of AT&T, Comcast and other companies on Tuesday as more Americans were using the internet under the coronavirus pandemic, and a bipartisan consensus appeared to be emerging on boosting U.S. infrastructure.

Within six years, the new T-Mobile (TMUS) is likely to provide 5G service to 99% of U.S. citizens with average speed of above 100 Mbps to 90% of the population.

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- If exchange-traded funds are the fast food of investing, then private equity is the private kitchen. As the world spirals into a recession and the coronavirus pandemic batters your retirement accounts, wealthy investors who bought into assets from unicorns to paintings can hide in an elite bubble that isn’t subject to brutal mark-to-market fair value writedowns.But once in a while, a high-profile unicorn hunter can blow the lid off that opaque world, giving us a glimpse of just how much pain private equity is in. Sometimes, private kitchens churn out terrible dishes, too.Investors are fleeing as SoftBank Group Corp., which runs the $100 billion Vision Fund, scrambles to shore up its balance sheet, as well as those of its portfolio companies. SoftBank gives a good feel for the landscape, because it behaves more like a private equity firm than an angel investor: Its capital is really debt, and it likes to invest in rivals and force them to merge. SoftBank is seeking to raise billions to support its unicorns battered by the coronavirus outbreak, saving those that still show potential and cutting loose the ones that bleed too much cash. On the one hand, it’s in talks to lead a fresh $100 million funding round for Plenty Inc., perhaps because the indoor farming startup can benefit from panic buying of fresh produce. On the other, OneWeb, a satellite operator, has filed for bankruptcy.SoftBank’s desperate scramble must resonate with many private equity firms out there, whose portfolio companies will inevitably need their patrons’ help. By early March, industry titans Blackstone Group Inc. and Carlyle Group Inc. already urged businesses they’ve invested in to do whatever it takes to stave off a credit crunch. But with blue chips drawing at least $124 billion from their credit lines in the first three weeks of March, and dollar funding this tight, will lenders have the bandwidth to aid smaller companies? Banks certainly have much bigger deals to digest: They’ll need to come up with $23 billion of loans soon for T-Mobile USA Inc. to close its merger with Sprint Corp.Granted, for private equity firms, cash levels are at a record high. Last year, capital committed to this sector grew 20% to $1.3 trillion, estimates Pitchbook, a Morningstar company. But instead of buying new assets, firms may have to earmark a good chunk of that money for existing investments, either recapitalizing — like what Softbank has done for basket case WeWork — or leading unplanned funding rounds.Meanwhile, making capital calls to investors can’t be much fun right now. Even the best of them — pension funds and sovereign wealth funds — are dealing with their own crises and may not want to pick up your calls right away, especially if it means selling other assets at deep discounts just to come up with your money. Plus, we now all have the convenient excuse of working from home: Some of us are hiding in the woods (or the Hamptons), away from the raging virus, and may not have good cellphone reception.Just look at SoftBank. As of December, only about 75% of the Vision Fund’s committed capital is with the fund, and the company still needs to call $17.5 billion from third-party investors, its latest filing shows. Since then, Saudi Arabia, a major investor, has started an oil price war, further diminishing its fiscal power. So forget about Vision Fund 2; founder Masayoshi Son needs to fill up 1.0 first. In the last decade, private equity firms piled vast amount of debt onto their portfolio companies to boost returns. More than 75% of deals in the sector included debt multiples greater than six times Ebitda in 2019, compared with 25% after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to Pitchbook. When liquidity recedes, these investments are in trouble.To make matters worse, portfolio companies’ ability to service debt is even worse than it looks on paper, because Wall Street lawyers and bankers often juice earnings to make purchase prices look more reasonable, and so underwriters can originate more loans and earn more fees. In 2016, businesses involved in a merger or leveraged buyout missed their own earnings projections by an average of 35% in the first year after the deal, Bloomberg Businessweek reported in December.So imagine the coronavirus world, where any prior earnings projections feel as outdated as “Sex and the City” stars prancing around Central Park in Manolo Blahniks. Just as social distancing is becoming the norm, so too will corporate defaults. The global rate could climb to 16.1% if the pandemic brings economic conditions that mirror the Great Recession, Moody’s Investors Services warned last week.In private equity, fancy terms like total addressable market or adjusted Ebitda are often used to make a company look more profitable than it is. But the coronavirus is unraveling all that. Just like the rest of world, private markets are also suffering. Ray Dalio’s “cash is trash” motto is so yesterday. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Shuli Ren is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian markets. She previously wrote on markets for Barron's, following a career as an investment banker, and is a CFA charterholder.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

In the latest trading session, Sprint (S) closed at $8.44, marking a +1.81% move from the previous day.

How did Sprint employees mark the completion of the company's merger with T-Mobile? CFH — or celebrate from home.