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T-Mobile Is Giving Customers Stock In the Company (cnn.com)
T-Mobile is going to great lengths to lure customers. On Monday, the United States' third-largest wireless carrier announced that it will give one share of T-Mobile stock to millions of customers. These customers, the company added, will get a chance to earn more stocks if they are able to refer friends and make them switch over. CNN reports: The company isn't issuing new stock, so the program won't dilute existing shareholder value. T-Mobile will buy shares from the open market and give them to customers. T-Mobile estimated about 1 million shares in its SEC filing, but Legere says he wants "millions and millions" of customers to participate. "I'm gonna thank you like you've never been thanked before," Legere said during an event in New York. The new "Stock Up" promotion is part of T-Mobile's Un-carrier marketing strategy, which strives to give customers more flexibility on data usage. In the past, the company has offered promotions for video and music streaming, roll-over data plans and international roaming.
I already have free texting and data when I travel to Canada (quick easy when living in Seattle), and now I get stock options too? SWEET!
So they are essentially turning into a pseudo-coop. Companies whose customers are shareholders tend to have reduced conflicts of interest. This is good for all involved. The non-customer shareholders will also benefit from a more valuable company. As of right now, the stock is down 1.28% for the day. Normally, a share buy-back causes prices to inch up... I wonder why investors are behaving strangely.
According to my friend who works at a Sprint Store, T-Mobile sucks.
turbotax must be smiling
I use Google Project Fi, which is a MVNO on Sprint AND T-Mobile towers. For the last couple weeks, the T-Mo towers near my home have lacked Internet connectivity, while maintaining a strong 4G signal. The upshot: My phone connects to these towers but I have no mobile data. I've contacted Project Fi about this and they are doing their best, but it sucks right now. Part of the attraction of Project Fi is that it takes the T-Mo coverage map and overlays Sprints, resulting in some pretty good coverage, but if half of that picture is broken, so is the coverage. :-(
From TFA:
There are about 11 million existing customers who are eligible. T-Mobile (TMUS) is currently trading at about $44.
"You get a share! You get a share! Everybody gets a share!"
T-mobile's common stock seems to be selling for $46/share.
Basic service from them costs $50/month. So "First month free" is about the value of this deal...hardly a dramatic benefit.
www.sjbaker.org
For lots of people, this $40 worth of shares is going to be the only stock they own. It's another account to maintain, it's potentially tax implications they don't otherwise have to deal with. For lots of people, it'll be a weird hassle they have to register with their employer. It's also going to be significantly more expensive for the company than just giving out money or discounts. And it doesn't tie you in any meaningful way to the company - if T-Mobile goes up 50%, you're still only up $20. It's not like you have some new meaningful connection to the company's success.
The rational action, on receiving this single stock, would be to sell it immediately, before the "free transaction period" expires and before you forget about it or lose your login or whatever; $40 is a lot better than a weird asterisk in your financial position.
So, in the end, they're giving people $40 in a way that might function like a weird small buyback (as a good chunk of these shares will be orphaned nowhere) - but they're going to spend more than $40/person doing it, and most people are going to get less than $40 of value out of it. But it does make for a novel press release I guess.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
i'm sure the towers work just fine for t-mobile customers. google screwed something up
T-Mobile : "I like you. Hell, you can come home and fuck my sister."
Dark Reflection
Equities markets are genuine snake pits. The P/E's are in fairyland. Look how shiny that share is. Stocks sound great? Look at all the wealthy investors.
There is no growth. P/E's indicate price to earnings. Simply stated a P/E of 1 is you are paying what that fraction of "business ownership" is precisely worth right now. If the P/E is 2 you are paying 2x what the "present valuation" of that fraction of "business ownership" is precisely worth right now, hoping it will go up in value later. This is simplistic fundamental investing. A P/E of 15 means 15x, a P/E of 30 means you are paying 30x what that share is "worth" right now. Then in come technical traders. They use high-speed trading algorithms to literally fuck the small guys over immediately... AND... long term. As soon as you buy a share it either goes up and you sell it for profit or it goes down and you can't sell it without a loss.
Right now
AT CLOSE 4:00 PM EDT 06/06/16
$43.07 USD -0.56 -1.28%
P/E Ratio (TTM)
29.30 (06/06/16)
So apply the math in your head. If you can't see (layman's terms)
$43.07 / 29.40 is $1.47 you already been had. If everybody gets their 1 share... how will you sell it without commission to a brokerage? How will you sell it without having a brokerage account? The snakes got your ass, that's what. Maybe you walk in hey I want to sell this share. Have a seat. Long bullshit story because they KNOW all P/E's in the entire market are at sham levels... PLUS the economy is fucked in myriad other ways. Look at derivatives contracts outstanding. http://www.bis.org/statistics/derstats.htm That is huge monkey business that absolutely affects the entire market along with geopolitics, money supplies, etc.
fine print.
Lured into rip-off world by one shiny share that is worth less than a box of condoms at any given second. The giveaway is just another same-old advertising gimmick. This particular scheme was suggested to T-Mobile by E-Trade.
Because one share is not much (too little to sell, really) I think many costumers will end up buying more shares, especially since they already have a connection to the company (own what you know). This might be enough to pump up the stock price beyond what T-mobile could have managed by just buying and retiring shares.
What a silly gesture and mostly pointless for the average customer. Who will actually appreciate and make any purchase decision based on owning 1 share of a company's stock? At some point, it's actually more trouble to have this share of stock, and keep track of it.
I think most customers would much rather T-mobile invest this money into upgrading their networks/products or have more attractive offerings. Not saying T-Mobile is a bad company -- there are many aspects to like about them, but this move is silly.
By the way, Google Fi has completely won me over as a wireless carrier (operating largely on T-Mobile's network).
Those were just $10 per share. :)
I love my T-Mobile service, but this uncarrier move is just weird and gimicky.
I would rather have Android updates on a timely basis instead of "freebies". I am still patiently waiting for the note II to get 4.4 :-p.
http://dl.amnesia.boum.org/tai...
Not sure I want to be an investor, but as a customer, I'm entirely satisfied. I switch from AT&T when I got my latest iPhone, I'm spending $30 less per month for unlimited data (had one of the original grandfathered unlimited data plans from AT&T), service in Canada and Mexico is included, and I'm seeing LTE speeds between 70 and 90 Mbps.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The whole POINT of giving you the share is not that you have $40 more. It's that you feel a deeper sense of belonging to the company, that in turn you are more interested in telling others they should switch to T-Mobile... You literally will own a (very small) part of the company, and can also take place in company votes.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What percentage of the company will be given to customers? Would organized customers be able to take over the company management?
I have seen pizza stores do very large volume. I am talking like 100 pizza orders. Someone should ask a Dominos store precisely how much capacity they really have because they might be able to do it. However with Dominos they have discretion whether or not they wish to serve customers at the store itself, and many times stores opt out of coupons and offers and that might have happened with T-Mobile. A variety of secret causes including huge orders coming in and the discounted payments per pizza arranged with T-Mobile would anger the store owners causing them to block the coupon and push Dominos to end the offer; Tmo would be forced to end the offer if stores weren't accepting the coupons as well, effectively making the coupons worthless.
As a T Mobile customer I can tell you that the two stores we went to were not doing significantly more business on Tuesday or Wednesday. The first coupon issued was good for two days: June 7th and 8th if redeemed on June 7th. We went to a Arlington Virginia Dominos outside of DC at a high traffic location and the number of pizzas being made was standard. They had roughly six pizzas sitting on the carry out rack. We ordered our pizza and within 10 minutes it was done and we picked it up close to 10pm cutoff time for carry out. The second order we went to a Washington DC store and it had standard traffic going as well.
I have no idea if by the next Tuesday something changed because we didn't order pizza the second week.. But I can confirm the first week went smoothly at least at the DC area locations I shopped at.
by the second week I was already tired of Dominos pizza wishing another chain or two was participating. Dominos is the worst pizza to offer customers every week!!! We need variety.
obamasweapon.com