07
Nov
attlte

AT&T Promises LTE Coverage For 300 Million Americans By The End Of 2014 After $8bn Investment

Posted by in AT&T, News

Sure, Verizon's running those ads that tells you how obvious it is their network is best, but AT&T wants you to know it's not sleeping on the job. Today, the carrier announced that it plans to have LTE coverage for 300 million people by the end of 2014. For those counting, that leaves only about 10 million out in the entire country.

The plan comes as part of a $14bn investment into wireless and wireline services—$8bn of which is going to wireless—that is expected to be carried out over the next three years. The new 2014 estimate will add an extra 50 million LTE  customers on top of the already expected 250 million people covered by the end of 2013.

15
Oct
sprint

SoftBank Officially Announces The $20.1 Billion Investment In Sprint

Posted by in News, Sprint

SoftBank, a Japanese telecommunications and Internet corporation, has confirmed via a press release and a live event in Tokyo the $20.1bn investment that would give SoftBank a 70% ownership of Sprint. The news hit the rumor mill 3 days ago and was pretty much confirmed by CNBC yesterday. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2013 pending regulatory approval.

Roughly $12.1bn will be paid to the shareholders at $7.30 a share and $8bn will be used to "strengthen Sprint's balance sheet," grow the network, and perform "strategic investments."

Sprint's shares closed at $5.73 last Friday for a +144.87% gain this year so far.

11
Oct
sprintlogothumb

Sprint Is In Talks With Softbank For A "Substantial Investment" That "Could Involve A Change Of Control"

Posted by in News, Sprint

We've heard rumors that Sprint is considering outbidding T-Mobile for MetroPCS's affection. Just in case that doesn't work, though, Sprint wants us to know that there is another plan in the works: being purchased by Softbank. Since most of you likely aren't up to date on Japanese telecoms, here's the deal: Softbank is a Japanese telecom. The third largest wireless carrier in the country, so a bit of a kindred spirit with Sprint. Now, the Japanese company may be interested in purchasing big yellow. Rumors broke earlier today, and now Sprint has sent out this brief press release to confirm:

Sprint (NYSE: S) today confirmed that it is currently engaged in discussions with Softbank regarding a potential substantial investment by Softbank in Sprint.

18
Sep
bloombergradiotiny

Bloomberg Radio+ App Launches With Access To Live Finance Radio Talk 24 Hours A Day

Posted by in Applications, News

Finance radio! Are you excited yet? Good. Bloomberg has released an app for the company's 24 hour network of audio shows discussing economics, business, and investment. Through Bloomberg Radio+ you can either choose to listen to whatever's on the air right now, or pull from a list of on-demand shows. You can even download the episodes for offline listening.

bloomberg1 bloomberg2 bloomberg3

The app actually looks very well made. It's as feature-packed as one would want a streaming radio service to be. There's even a persistent stock ticker at the bottom of the screen. Because you can't talk about money without one.

23
May
gamefly_logo

GameFly To Start Publishing Android Games, Setting Up Investment Funds For Independent Game Developers

Posted by in Games, News

Well, this might be one of the most (potentially) awesome stories we cover this week. GameFly, the company best known for setting up a Netflix-style gaming rental service, has announced that it plans to open up a third-party gaming store on iOS and Android (think TegraZone, but with less hardware tie-ins). This would, presumably, be in addition to the already-existing GameFly app. Additionally, the company has "set aside a game development fund" that it will use to fund game developers with great ideas, but less cash flow. This is fantastic news.

For starters, the transition from game rental service to distributor is a huge move for GameFly.