Softbank is buying 70 percent of Sprint, it’s official

It's confirmed. Rumors last week that hinted that Japanese telecom and Internet provider Softbank would purchase Sprint were true, mostly. Softbank and Sprint have announced that the company will soon own 70 percent of the third largest U.S. mobile carrier.

Japanese based SoftBank is officially entering the global market. It was announced earlier today that the third largest carrier in Japan is acquiring 70 percent of Sprint, the third largest carrier in the United States, for $20.1 billion (1.57 trillion Yen). The two companies had been rumored to have been in serious discussions late last week. With all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed today, Softbank President Masayoshi Son and Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse announced that the deal was completed.

The breakdown of the deal, as announced by both Sprint and SoftBank, will send $12.1 billion to the current Sprint shareholders. The remaining $8 billion of new capital will be used to “strengthen Sprint’s balance sheet.” SoftBank is offering $7.30 a share for existing shares, though Sprint’s stock had closed at $5.73 a share on Friday. Current Sprint stockholders will also receive 30 percent ownership in New Sprint. That’s right, a group of extremely intelligent and wealthy businessmen and investors hashed out a multibillion dollar transaction and the best name they could come up with is “New Sprint.”

The name appears to be the only negative in this deal, though, as both Sprint (old Sprint?) and SoftBank are looking at this acquisition as a win. For Sprint, it provides a sizable influx of cash that allows it to be competitive against Verizon and AT&T. It also gives the company the backing of an extremely successful entity that has built a network in the same way Sprint hopes to. It’s also a win for current Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, who will become CEO of New Sprint and sit as a board member.

For SoftBank, this move is a bit of global market consolidation that plants it firmly in a top spot on the worldwide playing field. Now sitting as the third-largest mobile provider in Japan and in the United States, SoftBank has more than 90 million subscribers. This marks the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese firm to date. However, any transaction of this size comes with its potential pitfalls. Sprint may be a risky point of entry for SoftBank, taking control of a sputtering company in a market that is dominated by two seemingly immovable giants. The agreed upon merger between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and MetroPCS makes the market even more competitive toward the top. The deal has also placed SoftBank as “credit watch negative” by Standard & Poor’s, meaning it could see its credit rating downgraded. Of course, S&P made the same threat to the United States and that sure didn’t stop us.

SoftBank’s rise through Japan’s mobile market came on the back of being the first company in the country that carried the iPhone. It’s growth was only bolstered with acquisition after acquisition that put SoftBank in a position to make its biggest purchase yet with Sprint. Masayoshi Son will likely have to continue his aggressive ways to compete in the U.S. market. That doesn’t seem to be something he’s afraid to do. Leveraging SoftBank’s LTE knowledge will be a major key to the success of this transaction, as Sprint has been attempting to build out its network for some time to little avail thanks mostly to money issues. Sprint hopes to have LTE in 100 markets by the end of the year.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank may buy Sprint

SoftBank of Japan could potentially have a new market to try to conquer. Reports say the Japanese provider is looking to take control of Sprint and enter the U.S. market.

Apparently bored by its meteoric rise through the ranks of Japan’s telecom market, SoftBank is now ready to make a major play for a piece of the American pie. According to the New York Times, Japan’s second largest wireless service provider is close to taking controlling interest in Sprint, America’s third largest mobile carrier.

SoftBank is no stranger to growth through acquisition, as it has made its way toward the top of the Japanese market by buying up other competition. This includes the purchase of eAccess, which occurred earlier this month and bumped SoftBank into the second slot for service providers in Japan. It has yet to make a move as sizable as the proposed Sprint purchase, though. While details are still hazy, a report from Reuters set the cost for controlling stake at 1 trillion Yen, or about $15.9 billion. Other sources the cost to be as high as $30 billion. It’s a sizable price tag, but it also introduces one of the shrewdest of companies to the huge American market that is ripe for competition.

For Sprint, the would deal finally give it the deep pocket backing it so desperately needs. The carrier has struggled to gain its footing after royally screwing up its Nextel merger years back. It has since attempted to expand its infrastructure in hopes of offering a competitive LTE network, but the $21 billion debt and consistent money loss since 2007 has hindered any chance at growth. A recent attempt to buy MetroPCS and block the merger between the regional provider and the Deutsche Telekom owned T-Mobile is the latest in Sprint’s seemingly futile attempts to retain its share of the U.S. market. SoftBank could be the boost it needs to get back in the fight.

While most reports claim the deal to be nearing its final stages and are expecting an announcement soon, Sprint and SoftBank appear to be completely shocked by the news leaking out. Sprint has declined any comment and SoftBank issued a statement that staunchly said, “The story about SoftBank and Sprint Nextel Corporation being reported is based on speculation. We have not announced anything. We do not comment on speculation.”

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Netflix confirms loss of streaming content from A&E Networks

More than 800 hours of content from A&E Networks disappeared from Netflix's Watch Instantly service on Friday, and it may not be coming back quick enough for the streaming provider, thanks to complicated negotiations.

If you’ve been spending your downtime this summer catchng up on such shows as Hoarders or Pawn Stars on Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service, you may have been surprised this weekend when you went to continue your catch-up spree. Don’t worry, however; you weren’t falling victim to some kind of well-intentioned televisual intervention via long-distance proxy when you couldn’t find the shows on the service. It turns out, around 800 hours of content from A&E and affiliated networks was taken from the service on Friday, and more is on the way out.

The Hollywood Reporter has confirmation from Netflix that the A&E titles were removed from the service at the end of last week. “A number of titles expired today, that is true, but we have titles coming on and off all the time,” reported Netflix spokesman Joris Evans when asked about the disappearance of shows including not only Hoarders and Pawn Stars, but also Storage Wars, American Pickers and several others. As Evans’ statement may suggest, Netflix is playing down the show’s disappearance, and with some reason; the company is actually still in negotiation with A&E over a new agreement that would see the various shows return to the service sooner rather than later, in which case, why draw attention to what may end up being a hiccup in service?

On the other hand, there’s the other hand. The negotiations between A&E and Netflix didn’t lead to an agreement in time for uninterrupted service, and they are still ongoing three days into the shows being offline with, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s unnamed sources, no end in sight. The issue that hasn’t been settled isn’t, apparently, anything to do with money but exclusivity, interestingly enough; Netflix is said to be asking for “some level of exclusivity that A&E is unwilling to grant.”

It’s possible that this could be a sign of things to come for Netflix. With the rise of alternate streaming avenues for broadcasters – Amazon Prime and Hulu, to name just two, not to mention the continually-rumored Apple variation on the idea that may or may not be connected with the equally long-rumored Apple TV product – Netflix may find more and more often that broadcasters have no problem with the idea of sharing their content with streaming services, but are increasingly unwilling to limit the number of services that their content is available on, no matter how much money is offered to sweeten the deal. In this, Netflix may be a victim of its own success; having proven the value of streaming content, now they have to deal with a market in which the content providers recognize the value of their content in this context.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Top 7 Video Submission Websites For Backlinks

If there is one thing that every SEO provider understands, it’s that backlinks are an extremely important part of every internet marketing campaign. After all, without backlinks Google has no idea how relevant your content is and won’t be able to show it when your audience is searching for it! To help Google push your content up in the search engine rankings, here are the top seven best video submission websites for obtaining backlinks.

1) YouTube
YouTube — aside from being owned by Google — is the absolute best place to submit your video for backlinks. YouTube has a staggering PR of nine, and while that does not automatically transfer to your video, it goes to show how much love Google gives this website. While not explicitly stated, it can be inferred through search engine results that YouTube videos rank extremely well, and it’s unlikely that this will be changing any time soon.

2) MySpace
Myspace, with a PR of eight, is also an excellent source for free backlinks from your video. While it may not be the social giant that it used to be, it is still an excellent place to submit your video for easy backlinks.

3) Vimeo
Vimeo is a social network based solely around the uploading and sharing of videos — what does the mean? It means not only do you get a backlink from this immensely popular site for free, there’s a good chance (if your video is interesting) that people will comment and share it on other video websites! More backlinks means higher search engine rankings, so Vimeo is one video submission website definitely worth getting a backlink from.

4) Yahoo Video
Yahoo Video is like YouTube’s younger brother: not as popular, but still extremely relevant. Many SEO providers forget about Yahoo in favor of Google, but the search engine still gets an immense amount of traffic every day. Combine that with the fact that Yahoo Video has a solid PR of eight, and you are one backlink closer to getting that subscriber, sale, or just plain reader!

5) Daily Motion
Daily Motion is very similar to Vimeo in that it is yet another community-based video sharing site with a high PR of seven. Videos are easily organized by category, and you can find a video on just about anything here.

6) Photobucket
Here’s a name I bet you haven’t heard in a while! Also one that you probably weren’t expecting to make the cut, but Photobucket is yet another great website to obtain a free, high-quality backlinks. While the website is primarily used to share photos, it has recently begun integrating videos into its infrastructure. With a PR of seven, this is another video submission site I highly recommend.

7) Metacafe
Last on my list of the top seven video submission sites is good old Metacafe. Similar to both Daily Motion and Vimeo, this community is all about promoting interesting videos. Don’t worry though if your video isn’t interesting enough to share, Metacafe’s PR of seven will give you yet another strong backlink to add to your host of others.

This concludes my list of the top seven websites you should submit your video to if you’re looking for high-quality backlinks. Remember that quality is always better than quantity, so instead of blasting your video to 100 different video submission websites, stick with the best and watch you rankings rise!

Tags: Video Submission, Video Websites

Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com