Tuesday, June 27, 2006

AUCTION 66://Investors bracing themselves
















Take a look at Sprint Nextel. What's wrong here? If you ask Morgan Stanley, it could be the market, slowing growth, the end of the Embarq effect, delayed share buybacks and of course 'low visibility'. But what about Auction 66?

With the FCC AWS Auction #66 (1122 licenses, 90 MHz of spectrum in the 1.7 GHz and 2.1 GHz bands in blocks of 10 or 20 MHz) starting August 9, investors are being cautious. The FCC set a floor price of $2 bn but hopes for $15 bn.

Mobile operators will bid, especially T-Mobile. Leap Wireless and Clearwire (WiMAX) will participate. Sprint Nextel will bid through its joint venture with Comcast, TWC, Cox and Advance/Newhouse. DirecTV could bid together with EchoStar (what ever happened to their wireless BB plan, worth $1 bn?).
Google and Yahoo! will not join, but maybe Intel will (looks like Qualcomm and its MediaFLO network).

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