The T-Mobile Press Release after AT&T deal failed

This is the press release from T-Mobile detailing what they are getting out of the failed AT&T-Mobile merger.

U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom have terminated the agreement on the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T. As a result, AT&T will pay Deutsche Telekom the break-up fee agreed in the contract signed by both companies dated March 20, 2011. This is one of the highest payments ever agreed between two companies for the termination of a purchase agreement. It includes a cash payment of USD 3 billion to Deutsche Telekom, which is expected to be made by the end of this year. In addition, it contains a large package of mobile communications spectrum and a long-term agreement on UMTS roaming within the U.S. for T-Mobile USA.

Both companies are in agreement that the broad opposition by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the U.S. telecommunications regulator (FCC) is making it increasingly unlikely that the transaction will close. Both companies are of the opinion that important arguments in support of the transaction have been ignored, such as the significant improvement in high-speed mobile network coverage for the U.S. market, as well as the positive employment effects. In addition there was no indication that either authority would move away from it’s non-supportive stance in return for concessions from the parties in terms of the scope and structure of the transaction.

As part of the break-up fee, T-Mobile USA will receive a large package of AWS mobile spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle).

The UMTS roaming agreement for the U.S. in T-Mobile USA’s favor has a term of over seven years and will allow the company to improve its footprint significantly among the U.S. population and offer its customers better broadband coverage for mobile communications services in the future. Population coverage will increase from 230 million potential customers at present to 280 million. As a result of the agreement with AT&T, coverage will be extended to many regions of the U.S. in which T-Mobile USA previously had neither its own high-speed mobile communications network nor the associated roaming agreements.

The termination of the agreement means Deutsche Telekom will go back to reporting T-Mobile USA as continuing operations in future. Deutsche Telekom’s guidance for the 2011 financial year remains unchanged as a result of this development, with adjusted EBITDA of around EUR 19.1 billion expected. At EUR 6.5 billion, free cash flow is forecasted to remain at the prior-year level or increase slightly. The guidance includes the T-Mobile USA contribution based on the average exchange rate in 2010 of USD 1.33 per euro. The free cash flow forecast does not include the settlement payment of EUR 0.4 billion relating to PTC in Poland or the cash payment of USD 3 billion from the break-up fee to be paid by AT&T.

Deutsche Telekom’s dividend policy also remains unchanged. The annual dividend payments are subject to the necessary board resolutions and other legal requirements.

Even following the termination of the agreement with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom exepects to remain within the communicated ranges for certain financial performance indicators used to assess the financial performance of the company. These are as follows: The ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA of the Group is to be between 2 and 2.5, the equity ratio is to be between 25 percent and 35 percent, gearing (ratio of net debt to shareholders’ equity) between 0.8 and 1.2, and liquidity reserves is to cover maturities of at least the next 24 months.

The cash component of the break-up fee directly reduces Deutsche Telekom’s net debt, thereby by strengthening the financial performance indicators affecting the company’s rating.

Deutsche Telekom would like to express its gratitude to AT&T and to Randall Stephenson and his team for the positive cooperation over the past few months. Our working relationship was characterized by fairness and respect at all times.

Qiss for the BlackBerry PlayBook

This is just a quick post I am putting up for people to be aware of this as well as people to give advice on what is the best route to take against an application vendor in a situation when they do something that is completely wrong. Qiss is an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook by OneTouch. This application is just like any other application that is links all of your social networks into one single application. But this specific application is not like all other application, because from what I see there is something malicious about this app.

I installed this app on my PlayBook and started setting up my account within the app. After signing into my Facebook account specifically I got an error message on the screen. I then went to my desktop to see my Facebook account and when it pulled up I had a message with a map that says “Suspicious Account Access” and that my account was recently accessed from somewhere in Germany? Near Frankfurt Am Main, HE, DE from a Chrome for WinVista computer. This is obviously not me trying to access my account from Germany, an I have also read that I am not the first person to have this happen after using Qiss for PlayBook.

I spent that night going back through and changing passwords like multiple Twitter accounts, LinkedIn, email accounts and Facebook. It was a seriously upsetting situation and I didn’t know where to start to even get answers to why this happened and why someone that obtained my information that I trusted them with used it against my wishes. I have emailed the company ‘OneTouch’ multiple times now and have yet to hear from them, I am now going to reach out to RIM so at least they will be aware of this problem because in my opinion it is nothing but a blatant disregard for my privacy and hopefully this will not continue to happen.

If you know anything about a situation similar or have any advice on good steps to take next in looking for an answer to this problem, in the meantime I would just say ‘Stay away from this app and this company’. Any comments are appreciated.