Monday, April 19, 2021

Week 15 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

CORPORATE

  • Orange BE
  • Tele Columbus: EC approves takeover; accepted by 91.96%, to close 210419, then rights offering to raise EUR 475m
  • Eir (NJJ 33%, Iliad 32%) Report on poor customer service during corona virus pandemic due to remote working and outsourcing
  • Virgin Media UK (Liberty Global): CMA (UK) approves O2 UK merger, "unlikely to lead to any substantial lessening of competition in relation to the supply of wholesale services" (provisional, open for comments until 210507, final decision 210527)
  • Altice Europe (Patrick Drahi): Moody's: assigns B2 to sr secured notes ($3b) issued by Altice FR, outlook negative (high leverage, weak FCF generation); increases debt maturity from 5.5 to 5.9 yr, interest savings EUR 50m
  • Telstra: Rumor: considers merging Telstra International with PCCW Global (talks with PE firm I Squared Capital), Telstra to acquire PCCW Global
  • Amazon: Annual Report 2020, Letter to Shareholders, Proxy Statement; reaches 200m Prime subs worldwide; spent $11b (+41%) on content (movies, series, music) in 2020
  • Netflix: Moody's upgrades from Ba3 to Ba1, outlook positive
  • Clubhouse: Raises funds; rumor: at $4b valuation; 10m WAU
  • Squarespace: Plans IPO via direct listing; symbol SQSP
  • AppLovin: IPO, symbol APP, IPO price $80, opens at $70, closes $65.20 (-19%) on first trading day
  • Epic Games: Raises $1b (incl $200m from Sony), valuation $28.7b
  • Reservoir Media: Plans IPO via SPAC, with with Roth CH Acquisition Co II; 21Q3 on NYSE, symbol RSVR, EV $788m

NETWORKS

General

  • Ookla Speedtest Global Index (March 2021)
    • Global average FBB 99/53 Mb/s, MBB 48/13 Mb/s
    • FBB: Singapore #1 (234), Thai #2 (231), HK #3 (225), RO #4 (211), Monaco #5 (205), NL #27 (137)
    • MBB: UAE #1 (179), S Korea #2 (171), Qatar #3 (167), China #4 (150), KSA #5 (134), NL #8 (103)
  • Tefficient mobile data usage report 2020 (ranking 105 MNOs)
    • Global mobile data volume +38%, Zain Kuwait #1 (40.2 GB/SIM/mo), DNA #2 (34.8), 3 Austria #3 (30.5); T-Mobile NL 6.0, VodafoneZiggo 3.4, KPN 3.1
    • "The bottom 11 operators are from the low usage markets of Greece (Vodafone), Czech Republic (TMobile), Belgium (Proximus, Orange, Telenet BASE), Germany (Telekom, O2, Vodafone) and the Netherlands (KPN and Vodafone Ziggo – but not T-Mobile)."
    • " the nine operators with the highest revenue per GB are from six European countries: Greece, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Switzerland."

FTTP

  • Orange PL establishes open access FiberCo (Światłowód Inwestycje) 50/50 JV with APG
    • Orange PL anchor tenant
    • Valuation PLN 2.748b (debt-free, cash-free) = EUR 605m
    • Orange PL to receive PLN 1.374b = EUR 303m (PLN 887m on closing, PLN 487 on delivery during 2022-2026)
    • Orange PL contributes 0.7m lines, to add 1.7m lines in 5 yr in mid/low competition areas, capex PLN 3b (partly from new debt (>80%), equity contributions PLN 300m from each during 2023-2026); ultimately to own 2.4m lines
    • Will not be consolidated by Orange PL; Orange PL has option to acquire extra 1% + control between 2027 and 2029
    • To close end Aug 2021

HFC

5G

  • AR: DNA plans 5G pilot at Hiukkavaara school in Oulu, with BusinessOulu, Educational & Cultural Services, City of Oulu, Oulun Digi, Hiukkavaara school, Playsign: to develop AR experiences for phenomenon-based learning
  • VR: BT plans 5G at Hyberbat (battery maker) factory to support VR-enabled digital twin, with Ericsson, NVIDIA, Qualcomm
  • 360 degrees video: Verizon launches TUDN Vision: portal for 360 degree watching of soccer games televised by Univision
  • Cloud gaming: Vodafone IT launches 5G cloud gaming platform GameNow
  • SA 5G: Vodafone DE launches SA 5G in 3.5 GHz band at 10 sites in 170 cities, with Ericsson, Qualcomm, OPPO; latency 10-15 ms
  • Bell Labs Consulting (Nokia) report The Big Inversion ("How 5G+ technologies will create new value for industries in a post-COVID world")
  • Private Wireless
    • Nokia and EY partner on Private Wireless, 3 key offerings: 1. fuelling digital change in manufacturing, energy, and operations across industries, including for governments and cities; 2. building cybersecurity and digital trust by protecting and managing challenges brought by IoT and IT/OT crossover; 3. helping telcos, specifically, to capture and monetize 5G business enterprise opportunities
    • DT acts as SI for Private 5G for Industry 4.0

6G

SERVICES & CPE

Telco & other

Music

  • Spotify
    • Launches Car Thing in US (smart player, limited release, invite-only), free for select Premium subs (excl shipping): voice control (“Hey Spotify”), dial, touch screen (4 inch), preset buttons, requires Bluetooth and smartphone; "Our focus remains on becoming the world’s number one audio platform—not on creating hardware—but we developed Car Thing because we saw a need from our users, many of whom were missing out on a seamless and personalized in-car listening experience."
    • Partners with Warner Music Group to develop podcasts around WMG's catalogs
  • Apple Music: WSJ: Apple Music pays 52% of subscription rev (0.01 $/stream) to rights holders [compare Spotify: 67% to rights holders o/w 75-80% to labels = 50-53; Spotify has more subscribers and has a free+ads tier]
  • Distr deal with Epix (= MGM): bundle 13 $/mo, exclusive access to music to series Godfather of Harlem 
Video

  • Self Financial report based on IMDb ratings: Apple TV+ #1 (average score 7.24 or 7.13 on 70 titles), HBO Max 7.13 or 7.01, Netflix 6.94 (530 titles), Disney+ 6.63 (420 titles)
  • Morgan Stanley survey US: 39% say Netflix offers best originals, Amazon Prime 12%, Disney+ 7%, Hulu 7%, HBO Max 6%
  • Antenna & MoffettNathanson report on churn rates US 20Q4: Netflix 2.5%, Disney+ 4.3%, Apple TV+ 15.6%, HBO Max 6.7%, Peacock 9.5%
  • Plex: Reaches 25m MAU (r'red users who spent >= 10 minutes on Plex); >150 free channels, 20k free movies & episodes (from Lionsgate, Warner Bros, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Sinclair Broadcast, AMC, A+E, Crackle, BBC); raises $50m

REGULATORY

  • Amazon: WSJ: leverages dominance in one business to compel partners to accept terms from another
  • Twitter: Launches Responsible Machine Learning Initiative led by ML Ethics, Transparency and Accountability (META) team: assess downstream or current unintentional harms in the algorithms used
  • Platforms
    • US Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo) proposes Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act: ban M&A for fimrs with market cap >$100b, replace antitrust issue of consumer harm by protection of competition, , empower FTC
    • EU plan for AI regulation leaked: to establish European Artificial Intelligence Board
    • US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approves report on platforms (Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple); "each hold monopoly power over significant sectors" [see 201006]


at 1:14 pm
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