M&A's, Internationalization and Balkanized Spectrum

June 18, 2013

Today's Wall Street Journal has a field day of activity from Clearwire's new found respect, Verizon Wireless invading Canada and Liberty Media looking to acquire Kabel Deutschland.

Add this to the T-Mobile / MetroPCS / DT activity and the confusing life of Sprint / Softbank / Dish Networks and you have a whirlpool of competition.

So what is the lesson here?

I think this a story about markets and monies as opposed to synergies.

On the market side with the reality is that there will be little synergies in these mergers. Technology, management and spectrum allocations will stay in place. However, the US market seems to be ripe for a stronger number three.

For Liberty Media and for Verizon the issue is saturation. Growth
On the money side, with the Fed suggesting tapering is coming, the cheap money window is closing. If you are going to invest now is the time and the big companies recognize it.

My sense is that many of these mergers will be divested again. Like Verizon Wireless and Vodafone trying to separate.

Let the Buyer Beware.