|
Filed by DISH Network Corporation |
|
pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933 |
|
and deemed filed pursuant to Rule 14a-12 |
|
under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 |
|
|
|
Subject Company: Sprint Nextel Corporation |
|
Commission File No.: 001-04721 |
The following transcript of the conference call and audio webcast held by DISH Network Corporation on April 15, 2013, a copy of which was originally filed pursuant to Rule 425 on April 15, 2013, is being resubmitted to make certain corrections to the transcript originally filed.
Company Name: DISH Network |
|
Market Cap: 16,007.53 |
|
Bloomberg Estimates - EPS |
Company Ticker: DISH US |
|
Current PX: 35.34 |
|
Current Quarter: 0.534 |
Date: 2013-04-15 |
|
YTD Change($): -1.06 |
|
Current Year: 2.224 |
Event Description: DISH Network Corporation and |
|
YTD Change(%): -2.912 |
|
Bloomberg Estimates - Sales |
Sprint Nextel Corporation Merger Call |
|
|
|
Current Quarter: 3609.882 |
|
|
|
|
Current Year: 14634.632 |
DISH Network Corporation and Sprint Nextel Corporation
Merger Call
Company Participants
· Jason Kiser
· R. Stanton Dodge
· Thomas A. Cullen
· Charles W. Ergen
Other Participants
· Phil Cusick
· Benjamin Swinburne
· Anthony Carmen
· Douglas Mitchelson
· David Barden
· Alex Sherman
· Liana Baker
MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION SECTION
Operator
Good morning. My name is Stephanie, and I will be your conference coordinator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DISH Network Conference Call to discuss its merger proposal with Sprint. Immediately following the investor Q&A, we will take questions directly from the media, so please stay online. Thank you.
I will now introduce and turn the call over to Mr. Jason Kiser, Vice President and Treasurer. You may begin your conference.
Jason Kiser
All, right, thank you very much. Well, thanks everyone for joining us for todays announcement regarding our proposal to Sprint to combine our respected companies. Before we begin, please note that our press release and presentation for todays call are available on our dedicated transaction website at www.CompleteDishSolution.com where it will be archived for replay.
With us on the call today are Charlie Ergen, Chairman of DISH Network; Tom Cullen, Executive Vice President and Corporate Development; and Stanton Dodge, Executive Vice President and General Counsel.
And before we begin, we do need to do our Safe Harbor disclosures, so for that, well turn over to Stan.
R. Stanton Dodge
Thank you Jason. All statements we make during this call that are not statements of historical facts constitute forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from historical results and from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a list of those factors, among others, please refer to the front of our 10-K.
All cautionary statements that we make during this call should be understood as being applicable to any forward-looking statements we make wherever they appear and you should carefully consider the risks described in our reports and should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which we assume no responsibility for updating.
And with that, Ill turn it back over to you Charlie.
Charles W. Ergen
Thank you, Stan, and welcome everybody. I apologize for a late start, but we have awful lot of people down and obviously this is the were going to talk a little bit about vision and were talking and then about our combination opportunity in the future. Ill start with talking about the fact that we all know that the world of data is exploding in terms of demands of data. We know that the people want video and they want to look at video anywhere they are in a convenient manner. And these things are converging together, right.
And at the same time, in the data world, speaking of the mobile data world, theres going to be bit caps, theres starting to be I saw Verizon today, now going to upgrade you for 24 months instead of 20 months. And the DISH Sprint combination will give you unique ability across all platforms with some unparalleled capacity and an exceptional scale and efficiency. And so it makes it a great investment opportunity and its going to make a great company.
I first just want to start and compare since Sprint has initially accepted an offer from SoftBank just really compare that to what were talking about. And obviously were talking about bringing some things that SoftBank just cant bring to create a superior company. Were bringing 45 megahertz of unencumbered spectrum to the party.
Almost three [indiscernible] of EBITDA last year and 14 over 14 million subscribers to the party. Because were already in the subscription business in the United States today with plenty of assets in place. And Tom will talk a little bit, a little bit in a minute. We bring $11 billion net price value cost savings and another $24 billion of new opportunity synergies.
And finally our offer is superior. Its more cash, its by about $5 billion or $476 a share versus $403 and there is more stock and more importantly as 32% Sprint shareholders have 32% of a combined company of DISH and Sprint versus 30% of the current Sprint without the combination benefits of DISH.
So, first I think everybody on this call probably would like to has two has necessitates in life of food and shelter. But after that you probably get to your mobile device and your TV as three and four and you want to be able to do that in a seamless manner, you want to be able to be connected no matter where you are and you want to be able to watch your television no matter where you are.
And you dont want to pay for it twice. You want to understand your bill, and you want to be able to use it as much as you possible can and you want to connect to every device in a seamless manner and you want everybody in your family to be able to connect. And you want to be able to connect to the cloud because thats where a lot of the information is going to be and the new DISH Sprint is going to be able to do that, always connected in all ways.
Data obviously is exploding, you can look at different charts and so forth and so on, but many people in Cisco reported 50% or 60% compounded annually growth rate. I know my family is probably doubling every year in terms of data rates, their people are using. Yet the pipes are fairly clogged. I know most data plans today, you have caps on how much you can use and then they or you start slowing down after a while and thats that problem is only going to get worse.
And the reason that the data pipes are getting clogged is primarily due to video, the great expansion of video. Most people think that video is going to today is over 50% and growing to maybe 80% or 90% of all the data usage, why is that happening because the phones are getting screens are getting better, the screens are getting more precise, a great wave of tablets overtaking the personal computer. All those devices are miniature high-definition televisions that you can take with you anyway, to everywhere.
So, let me take just a step back and if youre going to win in a broadband, mobile broadband business you really need four things. And the first thing is you need spectrum, different kinds of spectrum and you first need low-band spectrum because thats the spectrum thats going to propagate long distances. So, you build that cost for less expensive and of course, Sprint has the 850 megahertz low-band spectrum.
Then you need bit band spectrum where you have higher data usages, more densely populated areas such as cities and so forth and Sprint already has some spectrum there, but DISH brings that 45 megahertz of encumbered spectrum for a new build that can be done very efficiently.
And finally, you need high-band capacity such as in buildings and very high densely populated areas where data usage is a premium and where most of your data usage takes place today and thats the Clearwire spectrum at 2.5 gigahertz.
And finally the little understood and I think Dan Hesse talked about this on his last conference call, but more misunderstood I think in the marketplace today is that there is a fourth thing that you need which is the global standard and that global standard is important because thats whats going to drive your efficiencies and scale on your devices, more than anything else. And just two countries China and India are going to drive that. And the TDD band 41 standard of the Clearwire spectrum is going to be on a global scale, dominated by China and India and thats going to drive the device cost down.
I read just this morning in India where two companies are introducing smartphones at less than a $100 and you compare that with the $600 iPhone, and you can see where the scale is going to go. And finally, if you have those four things, then you need a lot of bandwidth and Dish, Sprint will have twice as much bandwidth as the major incumbents of AT&T and Verizon.
And I cant underestimate that. I mean, this is very, this is like the AT&T and Verizon have two four lane highways, but they are very congested. Sprint has a two lane highway today thats very congested, but when you add the DISH factor, I mean the Clearwire spectrum, you end up with an eight lane highway, thats only, thats very lightly congested. Thats going to be a tremendous strategic advantage in the marketplace going forward, if you believe that data usage is going to continue to grow.
So, were going to make this as a continual theme that were going to make. But what you really want is you want to be in your home with video, broadband, and data, and voice excuse me and you want to be outside your home with those same things. And while the cable industry does a really good job in your home, and the current wireless industry does a really good job outside your home, theres really no one company on a national scale that puts it all together. The new DISH Sprint will do that.
And with that scale of course comes some opportunities that Tom will talk about in the future, but obviously as a one service provider youre going to have higher churn than when you have multiple services. And so when you add DISH and Sprint together, you have two services that can grow to four services with mobile, video, and fixed broadband that Tom will talk about. That gives you churn reductions, economies of scale, it gives you share gain and an increased ARPU revenue opportunity.
And finally, one of the reasons that the new Dish Sprint can be so effective is it can be a hybrid network. You combine the, what we call Unicast network that most mobile operators have today. In other words, you when you use your phone, you have a dedicated line to the tower and combine that with the multi with the broadcast platform the DISH has, both from satellite and from terrestrial towers with our broadcast spectrum of 700 megahertz and unit it up with a one transmission to many.
So for example, yesterday, e were watching the Masters tournament in New York where we all can sit around and watch that in a broadcast mode, we can we can all watch that with one signal, in the Unicast mode that would have gone to dozens of people in our office it would have gone to obviously thousands of people throughout New York. So this is a much more efficient way of doing it. If you are more efficient, you can be lower cost, you can gain market share.
Now this isnt something that we just thought of yesterday. Its been a long time coming and for this shareholders you understand that, that people have asked us for strategy and several years ago we talked about it as a Seinfeld strategy, this will be new probably to Sprint shareholders.
We really said there are lot of things the building blocks that weve been putting in place over the years, is like a Seinfeld show in the sense that in the first 28 minutes, you see a lot of different things that dont make sense in that show, and in the last two minutes they all kind of come together, and this is the culmination of a lot of years of work where weve been putting a lot of things in place, whether it would be the purchase of spectrum, entering auctions, the acquisition of Sling Media, all those things come together now with the, with the merger with Sprint to put it into a total and to make it very unique powerful company.
With that, I am going to turn it over to Tom, talk a little bit about some of the opportunities.
Thomas A. Cullen
Thanks Charlie. I want to spend a few minutes here talking about the financial, operational and consumer benefits that we see as a result of the merger of these companies. The most significant and important part of this is focusing on the $37 billion of synergies, operating costs and revenue opportunities. As weve seen in the past bringing together two subscriber based, consumer focused operating entities will yield those types of benefits and this combination is no exception.
Bringing together the third largest pay TV operator in the U.S. along with the third largest wireless operator, creates options for streamlining and strengthening operations so that because the business has performed so many common functions.
If you see on the next page, we list some of those common areas of costs, specifically in the cost area the DISH pay-TV and Sprint Wireless businesses, jointly spend $39 billion a year. By aligning many of these functions on the left side of the slide, were forecasting that we will save in the first year of operation reduce spending by $1.3 billion which sounds like a large number but really its 3.3% of the total spend which we feel is very conservative and then we ramp that overtime in three years to $1.8 billion ongoing run rate.
Some of the more obvious areas that we look at are, sales and marketing efficiencies and alignment being able to do those together, using each others channels, for instance, Sprint stores to promote DISH products. We both run large call center operations, billing and collections operations, direct marketing and retention organizations because the functions of subscriber based businesses are so similar. So, again its $37 billion in total and specifically on the $11 billion of cost synergies we think that 3.3% reduction in year one is very achievable.
In terms of cross selling, naturally this is the most immediate opportunity because we have large customer basis respectively, we each have about 15% share of the markets. So there are there is already some overlap between the customers, but DISH will bring in its 14 million households we are estimating based on average household size about 35 million mobile users that are potential Sprint customers. Similarly, the 46 million Sprint retail subscribers equates to about 17 million U.S. households that we will target for DISH Pay-TV services.
And the ability to again lower the acquisition cost by using joint marketing platforms, for instance our own add inventory in many cases that we use today for DISH retention could be used for Sprint acquisition. And then so in the short term, the opportunities really through bundled pricing, but then in time and I think its really a very near intermediate term there will be more and more of this base overlap due to the integration of technology as were seeing today with the inclusion of things like DISH Anywhere and DISH Explore.
In terms of fixed broadband, the combination of more spectrum and DISHs service and installation force which is over 5,500 trained technicians that we dispatch across the country everyday that are on rooftops everyday as well as our own distribution, which is in every county in the U.S. with over 5,300 retailers.
We think that combination of spectrum and DISH resources allows us to change and improve the deployment of fixed broadband services. As you will see on the top right hand side of the chart, there are 18 million or so homes in the U.S. that still dont have access to broadband and another 35 million or so that offer speeds of less than 6 megabits per second.
Fixed broadband can compete in these areas and obviously the amount of bandwidth provided is dependent upon how much spectrum is utilized, but as weve seen in the past with just Clearwire using 20 megahertz of spectrum being able to build a base of currently 1.4 million subscribers, there is a market for this.
That market will improve if we have the ability to deploy more spectrum, particularly in more spectral efficient ways like TD, LTE which Charlie mentioned.
So and again as Charlie mentioned in an urban area, the highest and best use of spectrum maybe for mobile data capacity needs, but in the underserved and unserved parts of the country where the spectrum franchise isnt that great, the availability of more spectrum to bring to the fixed broadband equation will allow us to continue to provide better and better services.
So, the reason our insulation force is important there because we envision using a roof top antenna, which not only increases the throughput based on the DB gain, but also increases the size of the cell radius and thereby getting more capital efficiency out of the tower build and being able to provide service to more customers.
The next slide talks about mobile video. Its an area that we think well provide for differentiation of the combined companies service offerings. Its enabled by two things, one DISH has the 700 megahertz band of spectrum that we acquired at auction in 2008. This band is authorized to operate at higher power levels which will allow us to deliver linear video content packages over a broader area. And the second thing we bring of course is our programming relationships.
Over the course of the past few years, the market has significantly changed. First of all, in previous mobile video launches there were the consumer habits were much more non-video than they are today.
Secondly, there were no smartphones and no tablets and we certainly see a correlation between screen size and video consumption. And the other benefit of this type of service using this broadcast like spectrum is that the meter is not running, its a flat rate monthly service, so consumer can literally stream video to a laptop and not be worried about the data caps continuing to roll.
The next slide talks a little bit about the result of the financing on the transaction. We will finance a portion of this transaction with some additional debt, yet we still have net leverage of a very manageable 4.7 times and we are satisfied with the deleveraging profile of the combined companies.
The forecast, the net leverage will continue to decline over the first five years and as you can see on the right side there are substantial assets underlying the combined entity including spectrum subscribers and significant cash flow, which we consider just the beginning right now with that cash flow growth profile continuing to grow. So, with that, Ill turn it back over to Charlie.
Charles W. Ergen
Thank you, Tom. And I think most of the DISH investors on the phone of course know about it and Im sure most of the Sprint people do, but obviously were proud of the fact we have a history of success. We started in 1980 as a small business, but by 1995 we launched our first satellite.
We compete against some very interesting comments and have grown the company and tell us the third largest video provider in the United States today and at the same time weve decreased our leverage from 5.6 times net leverage to 1.6 times currently. And maybe more importantly is weve created a lot of shareholder value.
We know that we focus everyday in doing that and over if you were lucky enough to buy $100 of our stock when we in IPO in 1995 over the last 17 years, 18 years, you would have receive an annual return of over 20%. All we werent charging a 2% fee, so we were very proud that we worked for you and this transaction I hope will help us continue to do that in the future.
Weve obviously been an innovator from the first PVRs now the award winning hopper with automatic primetime recording slang. Weve been a disruptor, weve been a building, in terms of very complex assets launch over 15 satellites, call centers and so forth, and nationwide installation network. So these things cant be build overnight. Its taking a lot of years to do that a lot of expertise here in very complex situations.
So whats really exciting about this is the future, and we can run lots of numbers and lots of ratios and so forth, but what really you really go to take your step back and looking whats our future going to be. This combined company is going to take advantage of that future. I can think of no better way than maybe to visually show you in the sense that when the if you take a look at St. Peters Square when the former pope, who came into leadership role.
You can see one , they had several hundred thousand people in St. Peters Square. You can see one little Motorola flip pone out there maybe taken a maybe he was taking a picture, Im not sure what he was doing, maybe he was making a phone call. But when you look at it just a few months ago, several hundred thousand people and every single one of them had a phone or tablet or computer, all taking video, all taking pictures, all sending video all through a wireless network.
They had to be connected and thats the way were going to and she can imagine what the next decade is going to hold and where were going to be. Probably, we can even predict all the ways that when we can get there, but we do know that whatever it is, youre going to need bandwidth capacities take advantage of it.
So in closing, we think we they were offering a superior we think that this is the DISH brand will be a superior company. We bring a lot of things to the party and as Tom said, buying the third largest mobile operator and the third largest pay-TV provider together give us the chance together to become number 2 or maybe number 1. We bring lots of EBITDA synergies, revenue growth, and CapEx savings.
We bring more cash and more stockownership. And even if you if just take the cast aside, I think the most important part is the Sprint shareholders from 32% of a much bigger combined company that has tremendous growth in upside, and is well-positioned for the future.
And with that, I think were going to take questions, right. Operator, we will take questions for a while here.
Q&A
Operator
Thank you. [Operator instructions]. The first question comes from the line of Phil Cusick from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
<Q - Phil Cusick>: Hi, thanks. Charlie, I guess youve talked a lot of about being a broadband and video provider both in the home and out for the years. Its nice to see that this will all come together. If this merger were to be completed, when do you think it could be the vision could be realized. The sort of both in home and out of home seamless for the customer? Thanks.
<A>: Well, some of them would be almost immediately envisioned, right. Obviously, we could combine your video subscription and your mobile subscription together, but it would take it probably take two or three years to really instill the vision where you would have a quality of service that you could count on and you would know for example
that if you had your home video and you want to watch it outside the home and you could in fact watch it and you wouldnt pay any more for it.
And of course, some of that has to do with programming opportunities for our programming partners where they can get additional eyeballs outside the home, and working with them in a way that makes sense.
For example, one of the great opportunities is advertising where the hopper in your home is pretty smart, knows what youre watching and we can pull very specific ads to you. But when you go outside the home with the smartphone, its even smarter. It knows where youre going on the web and it knows who youre calling and it knows physically with GPS where you are.
And in the future, that phone is also going to be your wallet, so it knows what you spend money on. So, when you combine those two things together there is a lot of opportunities for our programming partners and a lot of opportunities thats probably not in this model from an advertising perspective. But in the long story, short, it probably almost immediately we could do maybe 50% of where this vision is and it might take two or three years to get to the end result.
<Q - Phil Cusick>: Got it. Thanks. And if I could one more, can you just give us an update on how you think about the Clearwire process at this point?
<A>: Well, we havent formally withdrawn our DISH offer for Clearwire. Obviously, were on record of what we think that value is, but we obviously wanted the Sprint Clearwire merger agreement and obviously we consult with Sprint and Clearwire on how they want to proceed with that, but our offer for Sprint itself is not contingent upon the Clearwire shareholders accepting the Sprint offer.
So look, Id say it this way, I am all for shareholders making money and I am all for real values and real and fair and people getting fair values. And I think thats what we built our reputation of, over the years and I dont think that we would want to hurt that reputation in one particular transaction or another.
<Q - Phil Cusick>: Great. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Ben Swinburne from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, your line is open.
<Q - Benjamin Swinburne>: Thank you. Its Ben Swinburne. Good morning, guys.
<A>: Good morning.
<Q - Benjamin Swinburne>: Charlie, what if you look around the world, the quality players out there tend to be wireline plus cellular wireline plus wireless. You think and maybe Tom wants to chime in too that your spectrum position and the technology curve youre looking at gives you an opportunity to really compete with Fiber and Coax as you look out to with three to five year road map of where even mobile video is going to be moving a lot of mobile videos consumed in the home, using WiFi.
How does this position you from a technology perspective when you think about the wireline competition. And then, Ill just ask my follow-up now. One of the things on your fact sheet, Charlie, you mentioned, I think it is the regulatory review, is that another argument to Sprint shareholders that you think youve got an easier pass in Washington than the current SoftBank offer?
<A - Charles W. Ergen>: Yeah. Let me take the second part first. Certainly we dont, we dont see an SEC issue, we really probably wanted the merger proposals of Sprint, but we certainly have an advantage on the justice department side because we dont go through a foreign ownership [indiscernible] review.
So there would be no controversy there with us as a U.S. company. There are some regulations against the foreign corporation owning, I think its 25% of a telecommunications company. So thats a more thorough review that the
justice department would do on the SoftBank transaction.
As far as the how the wireline and quad play and so forth play and Tom may jump in here after me, but the way I look at it is, that there is about 110 million homes in the United States and probably 70 million of those homes a fiber-to-the-curb or fiber-to-the-home its probably going to be that the way youre going to get that in the home because that all of that cable and fibers already in place today and youre densely populated enough. And I think the real opportunity here was Sprint and Clearwire are those 40 million homes that are not covered by that and maybe 35 million of those homes a fixed wireless where you put up a tower, fairly inexpensively, and you have broadcast you have wireless high speed data in this new TDD LTE technology.
You can be very, very economical, and whats great about it is you dont spend any more money until you actually put a modem in for the persons house, and the economics are enhanced by about 10x when you look the way we would do, which is we put the antenna outside of the house since we have the ability to do that, which means we pick a lot of gain and a lot of speed for the customers and obviously the Clearwire spectrum if and this would be think of it in terms of 100,000 unit communities population communities or the outer ring of a city as where this would be the most economical.
And then there is about 5 million homes where satellite broadband where you would it would be the most economical way to do it, because people are so [indiscernible] armor rancher, vacation home where satellite broadband. Obviously, we are doing very well with DISH Net today and so thats going how we see it. But we dont we dont see we dont see this, I dont want to mislead anybody, we dont see this as being a superior product to FiOS are one of the cable high speed modems in the density popular areas. Tom?
<A - Thomas Cullen>: Yeah. Dan, I think Charlie pretty much summed it up. And it comes back to what I said earlier, the priority will be define the highest and best use of spectrum and that will vary from geography-to-geography.
<Q - Benjamin Swinburne>: Got it. Thank you, guys.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] You have a next question comes from Anthony Carmen from Deutsche Bank. Please go head, your line is open.
<Q - Anthony Carmen>: Hi, thanks. Few questions. First, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the spectrum position of the combined company and your view as to how the spectrum position would fit into what the FCC is talking about with the future sort of spectrum screens, and if there was an assumption of having to make any divestitures of spectrum?
And then question on Sprint. In the current Sprint transaction with SoftBank, they are effectively being over cloud overcapitalized with cash to fund future opportunities. And I was wondering if you had a view as to whether youre going to have to inject some additional capital in the Sprint fund, a lot of the projects that they have currently under way for the next year?
<A>: Okay. As far as the spectrum position, obviously its a very lucrative its a very enviable spectrum position. And whats more important, maybe more subtle, is that if we were offsetting here in 1776, it would be pretty easy to put a spectrum map out there and make it very efficient. But obviously over the years the spectrum map, if youve ever seen one, its very, very chopped up between the Department of Defense and everybody and there brother who it been kind of fed out by bits and bites by the government.
So overtime its gotten very complicated, but in this particular transaction, particularly since were bringing about 45 megahertz of basically unencumbered spectrum thats contiguous, youre able to take a make a big big leap in putting things together. Just as an example, our S-band, AWS four spectrum is adjacent to the Sprint spectrum with only the H-block which is going to go to auction in between.
So, it gives us a lot of potential rationalization of spectrum, the in the Sprint SoftBank merger, AT&T and Verizon have not asked for any kind of divesture of a pretty big, obviously spectrum position. So, we dont think that there is a divesture issue, but we do think that to the extent we got this deal through without a divesture that the spectrum screen might be increased, so that AT&T and Verizon could buy more spectrum, right.
And if we did have to divest spectrum, obviously well just delever the balance. So, we cant speculate exactly on the SEC, but it looks like there is not lot of opposition. In fact, only DISH is opposed really the spectrum aggregation of SoftBank and Sprint, so.
<A>: The only thing I would add there is I would I believe the ability to provide broadband services to unserved and underserved parts of the country that are not likely to see competitive broadband opportunities is something that will be of importance to the regulators.
<Q - Anthony Carmen>: Yeah.
<A>: And then on the Sprint-SoftBank, obviously they would have some excess they would have more excise cash day one than we would in this transaction, but there is two overriding factors. One is, were bringing spectrum that would probably cost $8 billion or $10 billion or $12 billion in the open market. So, were bringing that to the party. So, thats we dont need the cash to go and buy more spectrum. And the second thing is were bringing cash flow of about a $1.5 billion last last year, I think to the party that can fund future operations.
So, we do think there is future growth opportunities; we do think there is going to be investment in the future. We do think that by the end of 2014, that Sprint has most of its network vision kind of behind it and Dan Hesse has talked about that. And then you probably got a very, very modern network that really can compete against the other guys.
I mean you first need spectrum then you need a modern network right, and Sprint doesnt quite have the modern network yet, but they are on a good path to do that. And the third thing then as you if you dont want to just sell, be a commodity and just sell minutes or text messaging or data caps, you want a marketing message thats something different that the other person cant give to your customers or off your customers and I think with DISHs video and fixed broadband expertise, we can offer a much, much more compelling product that differentiates away from other things, away from things like data caps and bits and bytes.
<Q - Anthony Carmen>: Thanks. And just a follow-up, in the release it indicates that you have to raise some additional cash for the transaction and it mentions a secured debt credit rating. Historically you guys have avoided a secured debt market. Just wondering if thats the avenue that youre going to be going down on the incremental $9 billion or so of debt that needs to be raised? And is that debt they would be raised against the DBS assets or would it be at the new wireless business and be raised on the wireless side?
<A>: Im going to let Jason take that one on.
<A - Jason Kiser>: Yeah, Anthony its Jason. The structure hasnt totally been set yet. Its about $9.3 billion of new funding that were looking at. It hasnt been set because were looking at some different alternatives to obviously put together most, the most the best way to do it for the cheapest cost of capital within the structure. The vast majority of that would be raised on the Sprint side and the borrowing groups will be separate, very little of that would be on the DBS side.
<Q - Anthony Carmen>: Okay, great. Thank you very much guys.
<A - Jason Kiser>: And none of that on the DBS we are looking to do secured.
<Q - Anthony Carmen>: Great. Thank you very much, Jason.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Doug Mitchelson from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
<Q - Douglas Mitchelson>: I have a question and Brad [indiscernible] is on the line, he has a question. Ill make mine quick Charlie, so we dont terminate this call. But you talked about years of preparation to arrive at this point. Are you worried that this will become and are you prepared for this to become a bidding war? And Brad if you have your question.
<Q>: Yeah, this is a quick follow-up to what you were talking up before. You mentioned Sprints network is almost where it needs to be. Does that mean that you were not assuming any incremental investment in the Sprint network as part of the synergies you outlined?
<A - Charles W. Ergen>: Okay. Well, the first part is, the first question is whether prepared to be in a bidding war. I think obviously we are not, obviously well have to see how this plays out and obviously I think we see the same thing the SoftBank sees. We see a very attractive asset in Sprint and Clearwire. We thought it was undervalued from their offer, so were willing to offer more money. Its a tremendous amount of spectrum. The Sprint management team has done a lot of hard work for the last five years and they are getting ready to see the fruits of their labor.
So we just see a lot of value there. They see the same thing. Well have to see how it plays out. But one thing that SoftBank cannot do, no matter what is they the best case we are going to be is own 30% of them, basically the same company, all right. And I think as a shareholder, I think no matter if the money was the same or even if their money was more, you still would rather own 32% of a combined company thats different, they can lead the future and can do something different than AT&T and Verizon. Otherwise we would be in a commodity business. And that would that to me wouldnt be as attractive as something that could be very unique. The second part of your question was
<Q>: That the network quality and whether it needs more investment?
<A - Charles W. Ergen>: Yeah. The network quality I think that Sprints plan and again Im not an expert on their network vision. Weve had lots of discussions obviously on how we could combine our spectrum with their network vision. Very similar to how they did it with light squared one time before kind of fell apart. So we know there is a lot of synergy in that. We dont really have that in the model and that would really be sitting down with them and saying okay now, we got 45 megahertz of additional spectrum, how will we built it out.
And I think what you I think what you come up come up with is you build out a little less Clearwire because Clearwire doesnt propagate as well and youd start doing more in building with Clearwire spectrum and last macro sales and youd do that with our spectrum. And I think you could end up with a little bit better model, but again thats going to be joint effort with their expertise. They certainly have more expertise in that than we do.
<Q>: Thanks so much, Charlie.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Mr. David Barden from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
<Q - David Barden>: Hi, guys. Thanks for hosting this call, taking the question. I guess, first if I could, would be just on the history of innovation and disruption that you guys have brought to the marketplace. Youve talked about bringing streaming video into the mobile environment, but with respect to the synergy creation, is there an eye towards rethinking the pricing model in the wireless business and bringing some of that fire power to take market share and shake things up more dramatically than simply bringing a mobile product to the table?
And if I could, the second question would be, just with respect to Charlie to the Seinfeld episode? If this episode ends with SoftBank going away and DISH owning Sprint, thats one potential ending. If it turns out that SoftBank is willing to further, then DISH is going to go. How does the Seinfeld episode end under those circumstances? Thanks.
<A>: Okay. Well the second part, well just end up in a two part Seinfeld episode. They had a few of those, instead of a one part Seinfeld. So it will be an hour show instead of a half hour show, well cross that bridge if we get to it. In terms of pricing models, obviously weve thought through a lot of innovative ways that we think the business could be better
than it is today. I mean I think of it as a consumer.
I asked people what they like or dont like about their service and I think its not I dont think its rocket science, I dont think you have to be a marketing expert to just go and say, what do you like about what you got, what dont you like, and then you change the things people dont like.
And I think we can make it simpler, I think we can give you I think Sprints well on its way to a quality network. I think that we could give you more services and combine services together in a seamless manner. And obviously Sprint will have a lot of ideas about how they think it should be done. Obviously theyre differentiating items at least from my perspective there is unlimited data offer.
But that doesnt really transcend into tablets. And today its really just phones and so I think there is a lot of room a lot of room for growth there. And I think that it I think wed focus a lot less on the pricing difference and more on the services that you get in a seamless manner that make your whole life just a little bit easier.
I would love to be a DISH Sprint subscriber and pay one bill and now I got my video everywhere, I know I got my voice everywhere and know I got my broadband everywhere.
<Q - David Barden>: Thats great. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions]. Thank you.
<A>: Is there a problem?
Operator
Just waiting for question.
<A>: Okay.
Operator
Okay. The next question comes from Alex Sherman from Bloomberg. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
<Q - Alex Sherman>: Hey Charlie, hey Tom. Charlie, when we spoke in October you remember we talked about how Blockbuster the acquisition of Blockbuster sort of didnt come together because of the delays of getting a mobile network. And Im curious you talked a little or Tom talked a little bit about sort of the linear mobile video package.
I was wondering if two of you guys could just sort of elaborate on that a little bit. What you guys had in mind for a mobile video product? Does that mean sort of a new DISH over the top video product something we havent seen before, maybe that youve been working on, that you would be finally willing to launch? Are there other features to that, that maybe you havent announced that youre sort of working on?
<A - Thomas A. Cullen>: Hey, Alex, this is Tom. No, this isnt over the top thought. Theres two components to what we would envision in terms of the content package. One is, if youre a DISH subscriber, in many cases we have authentication rights available to us over wireless networks and whats different here is that we being able to use the 700 megahertz spectrum and high power, you can authenticate the user.
And again its flat rate consumption and so its not consuming the network resources of a traditional mobile network would have to dedicate to it. And secondly, as you know, theres been a number of new and emerging content initiatives that are not necessarily from the family of traditional pay-TV programmers, that would also be interested in having near content available on this type of network and weve had many of those conversations over the last few months.
<Q - Alex Sherman>: Yes.
<A>: And then thats kind of the broadcast mode right that we talked about. The other hybrid of that is the Unicast, where because of the capacity that this network would have DISH and Sprint would be in a very good position to give you your own video on even on Unicast.
So we do that today with Sling for example, so that means that youd have a quality service for your own video, your own subscription from home. Or you could go out to stream a movie from Netflix or you can go to YouTube and you could do that with a network thats got plenty of capacity to do that whereas again, our competitors might be constrained with their capacity, which is why theyve gone to data caps and things like that.
Look I dont think its any secret if you could if you can get, if youre starting if you have a data cap of two gigs and you got to start paying, thats not lot of data, you start paying after two gigs. Somebody who gives you more than two gigs for the same amount of money is going to be attractive.
And then because people are going to use more and more data. And you just you guys just go put your data kind of on your phone and look at what it was last and look at what it was this year, look at what it will be next year and youre going to see using double the data every year and with no end in sight. So if youre going to have a lot of data, you better have a big pipe. And nobody is going to have a bigger pipe than DISH Sprint.
<Q - Alex Sherman>: Tom, was that a reference to ARIO, the new emerging content initiative?
<A - Thomas A. Cullen>: No, it wasnt.
<Q - Alex Sherman>: All right. So other companies that you havent talked about yet.
<A - Thomas A. Cullen>: I am saying, what youre seeing content being produced by non-traditional players and theyre interested in expanding distribution and would be interested in a mobile video package.
<Q - Alex Sherman>: Yeah.
<A - Thomas A. Cullen>: I think things like ARIO are doing today, my gut feel is the broadcasters will do that themselves. There is no reason that the broadcaster is not going to broadcast, he can use us or he could use his own frequency to broadcast his network to a mobile environment. And you heard a lot about that last week at NAB. So...
<Q - Alex Sherman>: Okay. Thanks, guys.
Operator
Thank you. The next question comes from Liana Baker from Reuters. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
<Q - Liana Baker>: Hi, Charlie and Tom. Thanks for taking media questions. I was wondering if youre prepared for a bidding more over Sprint and how much higher youd be willing to go. And secondly, with all this talk about data, are you saying you would offer an unlimited data service as part of Sprint DISH?
<A>: Weve answered the same question about three times. Ill try to answer it one more time.
<Q - Liana Baker>: Your last mine sales response seems to suggested youd be willing to entertain a higher bid?
<A>: Look, the SoftBanks credit, there is a $600 million breakup fee that were more than willing to pay here. So they are going to pretty well, plus theyve bought over $3 billion of stock at $5.25 so they have to convert to $5.25. So they would be a shareholder they would be about 5% shareholder of the new DISH Sprint and we certainly welcome them and their expertise as the major shareholder. Beyond that, well have to see what happened.
And then as far as unlimited data, Sprint has an unlimited data plan today for smartphones or for phone, and with our extra capacity and the modern eyes [indiscernible] we just have to do consultancy with them and see what additional
things we could do for the consumer. But if that became a big factor for consumers, I think wed be well-positioned to do it, doesnt mean that you would do it, But obviously Sprint has lot more expertise.
Im not realize were pretty good at video. We know video pretty well, and we know a lot of the big picture about wireless, but wed be reliant on the Sprint management team and the Sprint expertise on the wireless side where they have great expertise, where they are well in their way to build to finishing a very, very modern network.
<A>: Yeah.
<Q - Liana Baker>: I agree. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have no further questions at this time. I would now turn the call back over to Charlie Ergen for closing remarks.
Charles W. Ergen
Okay. Well, thanks to everyone joining us on a very short notice. And obviously, we are exited about the transaction. It obviously will take some time, obviously there is lots of things that could happen in the marketplace, obviously the first step for us to hear back from the Sprint Board and engage in discussions to make this transaction come true and to hear what the things that they think we can do better in our offer and have that discussion.
We shortly will be communicating with the Street as the process goes on. And obviously at the end of the day, the shareholders are the people who are going to make this decision and we look forward to working with all of you. Thanks.
Thomas A. Cullen
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you for joining. Ladies and gentlemen, this now concludes todays conference call. You may now disconnect.
This transcript may not be 100 percent accurate and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies. This transcript is provided as is, without express or implied warranties of any kind. Bloomberg retains all rights to this transcript and provides it solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Bloomberg, its suppliers and third-party agents shall have no liability for errors in this transcript or for lost profits, losses, or direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages in connection with the furnishing, performance or use of such transcript. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed in this transcript constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of securities or commodities. Any opinion expressed in the transcript does not necessarily reflect the views of Bloomberg LP.
© COPYRIGHT 2013, BLOOMBERG LP. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, redistribution or retransmission is expressly prohibited.
Cautionary Statement Concerning ForwardLooking Statements
Certain statements contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of DISH Network Corporation to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. More information about such risks, uncertainties and other factors is set forth in DISH Network Corporations Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements included in its recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012. Risks and uncertainties relating to the proposed transaction include, without limitation, the risks that: Sprint Nextel Corporation will not enter into any definitive agreement with DISH Network Corporation or the terms of any definitive agreement will be materially different from those described above; the parties will not obtain the requisite financing or regulatory approval for the proposed transaction; the proposed transaction will not be consummated for any other reason; managements attention will be diverted from ongoing business operations; and the anticipated benefits of the transaction will not be realized. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and DISH Network Corporation expressly disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Additional Information About the Proposed Transaction and Where to Find It
This communication relates to a business combination transaction with Sprint Nextel Corporation proposed by DISH Network Corporation, which may become the subject of a registration statement filed with the SEC. This communication is not a substitute for the joint proxy statement/prospectus that DISH Network Corporation and Sprint Nextel Corporation would file with the SEC if any agreement is reached or any other documents that DISH Network Corporation or Sprint Nextel Corporation may send to shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ALL OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS IF, AND WHEN, THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. All such documents, if filed, would be available free of charge at the SECs website (http://www.sec.gov). In addition, investors and security holders may obtain free copies of such documents filed by DISH Network Corporation with the SEC by directing a request to:
DISH Network Corporation, 9601 S. Meridian Boulevard, Englewood, Colorado 80112, Attention: Investor Relations. This communication shall not constitute an offer to buy or solicitation of an offer to sell any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities, in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
Participants
DISH Network Corporation and its directors and executive officers may be deemed, under the rules of the SEC, to be participants in any solicitation of shareholders of DISH Network Corporation or Sprint Nextel Corporation in connection with the proposed transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of the directors and executive officers of DISH Network Corporation in its annual report on Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2012, which was filed with the SEC on February 20, 2013, and its proxy statement for the 2013 annual meeting of shareholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 22, 2013. These documents can be obtained free of charge at the SECs website (http://www.sec.gov) and from Investor Relations at DISH Network Corporation at the address set forth above. Additional information regarding the interests of these participants will also be included in any proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant documents to be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction when they become available.
<;Y'"C)]* M@O)SJ_A?[9.B^?`^-X'6G+"P3E!2]Y:^0H8N;49N/NO3S(;H$^#+(`9)EX`_ M&L9[*ZCC\Q[:55]2IKIK:]73_"-M<&-9)`<1AAP&R>:H6?BB^^UH+HI+"[`, MI7H#6M:%*4H\\K-I=#'#SK1C)PBFDWU,*IHK.ZF7?%;R.OJ%.*Z"?1(&\410 MJN+>5?-*C^52W\GB$W3)96SPV\9PBH!R/6LU@W&[G?1VT5S5XU2:4+:J^KL< MJZM&Q5U*L.H(P:=Y$QVXB?Y_N_*>?I71ZW:S7.A)?7D`AO(FVOQ]X58N=2.F M:!8RQQ(TS+M1F'W?6CZG&+ES2LDD]@^NRDH\D;MMK,5#HT M8Q4I2=GMI^9:KUI2<8Q5UOK^1D&.14#E&"'HQ'!IE=1X@FCN?#]E/%&(U=\[ M1VX- LZT.9JVIJP^)M2MK=88VBVHN!E*V]5UJ\M-*L+F( MH))UR^5R.F:XX]#]*Z+7O^0!I/\`N?\`LHKJH5ZKI3O)Z(X\10I*K32BM69U M[J=_JZ`3*'6+G]VG3ZU3-M.(?.,+B/\`OE>*W_"+(BW[2+N41@D>HYJAJ&OW M5]$UOMC2`D;45>@'2LYPBZ:JU).[-85)*HZ5.*LBC%9W,Z[HK>1QZJIJ)T>- MBLBE&'4,,&NECD\1W,$1@1;6)5`4<+N]Z7Q#;RR:'! ="\>>FY<5U&H:D^F MZ-8-`B^?)&`'(SM&.U-TZ_DUO2[VWOE5VBC+*^.:IX6GS>S4O>M?;0E8NIR> MT=O\SF(H99FVQ1L[>BC-+-;S6YQ-$\9/\`>&*Z;P_N.@RKI[1B]W<[NM4- M7O=7^Q?9=1MP`6R)2O7V!J)8:,:2FV]5?;3T+CB92JN"2T=M]?4QHXY)6VQH MSMZ*,T^:UN+<9F@DC'JRXKHY9AX X6.8., M!F7[M*=&E37+.7O>FA4*]6I[T(^[?OJ9?E2E`XC8JQP#C@FM'2Y[O1[X2_8W M=G0@(RG)'J*U[.^73O",%QY2R2!R$#=` 1U'<*: MZ+P[M&M:B6&5P<_3-4KCQ/>K<$6FR&!#A$"CI42H4U'GJ2>K?0TC7J2ER4XK M1+J8OEN)/+*-OSC;CFM<:-_Q(#>>5+]I$FW9CM]*OW\JZAHT.M1(L=U;N`Q` MX)J8:S>GPPU]Y@\_S=N=O:M*>'I1E)2=U:Z]/\S.IB:LHQ<%;6SUZ_Y')NCQ MMM=2K#L1@TE37=W->W#3SL&=NI`Q4->=*U]-CTHWMKN%%%%24%%%%`!1110` M4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!1 M110`4444`%%%%`!15NQ$7EW)EM7GQ'E2I_U9]338],OI/N6DK<9X7M6GLY-) MK4S]I%-IZ6*U%7+>-#9W$;6 >E4 MJ,FKK_AB'7@G9_\`#F;15VXM7N;^1+.RDC`_Y9=2OUJ72[.2+7+6&Z@*[GY5 MQU%"I2 ;RO8S:*DN0%NY@!@"1@!^)J.LFK.QJG=7"BBBD,NZU_ MR&[S_KJ:I5=UK_D-WG_74U2K6M_$EZLRI?PX^B"BBBLC4ZK3[4W_`(1%JDB( M[.3\Y]ZK0>%C%*LEY>P+$IR=K W +S<'F,H%?'H:YKI MTH)).223[TOK @8BFDDG).30\3!7<(V;\_R!8: (=(AMO.2&\MA@!C]X46&A?V7)(X?F"@\DUS0)!R"0?44YI'?[ M[LW^\Q--8F#:E*-Y+S!X6:3A&5HOI8Z31KX7WB2YN3\JO&=H/IVKGI/^/QO^ MNG]:B!*\@D?0T5C.NYQ2>]V_O-:=!0DVNR7W&YXK8-?08(/[D=*?:L/^$-N1 MD9\SIFL`L6ZDGZFC<<8W''IFK^L_O)3MNB/JW[N,+[.YU=K;VUYX3MK::=(6 M8_NV8]&R<55M?"TL-PLU[/"D$9W$AOO`5S^YL8W'`[9I3+(R[6D 1W'K5F\TW4[F=KC3=2:6"0[ M@!+C;7*TY99$&$D=1Z!B*2Q;E=5%>[OH[`\&HM.F[65M5U^G <8^E=%*,JE))PYDMM?S.>K*-.K)QGRM[Z?D M6/$"P)X>LDMGWQ*^%;UX/- ?]D5S]!9B,%B0.@)K&G5Y(2C; >< M97V-[PRP%MJ62!F'C/T-8]D\<=_;O-CRUD!;/IFH0S#H2,^AHJG6O&"M\(E0 MM*;O\1U6M:7J&HW8N+6X62U8#;B3`05'JD<4'A2*".=9C')AF!ZGO7-B60+M M$CA?0,<4W<<8W''IFMY8N+YFHZR\SGCA)+E3EI'R-WQ`0=,TL`@XCYQ]*7PP MP$6HY(&8#U_&L$L3P23CU-`8CH2,^AK/ZS^^]K;^K6-/JO[CV5_ZN;&EZ/+> M6?VBSOT2X!_U8;!`K6O/-L_#D\.K7"33OQ&,Y(]*Y)69#E&*GU!Q0SNYR[LQ M_P!HYJH8F,(6C'6UM]/N)GAI3FG*6E[[:_>=,%A\1Z/!"LZ1WEOQM;O5*;PU M-:6DD]W=0Q%1\JY^]6*"5.5)!]0<4YI'?[[LW^\Q-*5>G-7G&\O4<4@[0G M:/H;5PP/@RU&1GS3Q^)J/PJ0NMH20!L;K]*Q\G&,G'IF@$J<@D'VJ7B+U8SM MM;\"EAK4I4[[W_$ZCPZ5_MK42WW<'/TS5:7PQ+ [9S0IU/;R4)6LET-_5I;;3=& M32()5EE8[I64]*?I<`U/PQ+80R*)UDW;2:YKJ_F37MG)87)MY2I=0"=IR*@H9BQRQ)/J3FBN25F]-CLBFD MK[A1114E!1110`4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!111 M0`4444`%%%%`!1110`4444`%%%%`!1110!JZ+_QZZG_UZG^=3ZO>W,$]BD4[ MHJPHP"G'-8L J_NSJY3Y3OC/''-5;R2ZDMM,??*T;*-YR2"=W>LA[NXDW^9.[>9 MC?D_>QTS2K>W26_V=;AQ%G.P'BMGBHMO>W_!N8+"226JO_P+&] #J.RNM/\K#;K_C\G_ZZM_,U%0Q+,68Y).23 MWHKSF[NYZ25E8****0R[K7_(;O/^NIJE5_6O^0W>?]=35&MZL?WDO5F%*7[N M/HA**6BL^4TYA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEH MHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA*=YLA7:9'QZ;C2446:ZA=/H)12T4< MH
W%FS&WE,9<;6QW%0T[M24W=JUQ*R=TA**6BERCYA**6BCE#F$HI:* M.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEH MHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6 MBCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI:*.4.82BEHHY0YA**6BCE#F$HI ':*.4.8__V3\_ ` end