Tag: mobile technology news

The telecom giant has stated that it is open to negotiations for the sale of the fourth largest American wireless carrier.

Deutsche Telekom AG has announced that it is open to discuss the sale of its T-Mobile unit, if it receives an offer that values it at a minimum of $35 per share.

This would mean that the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier could soon be in different hands.

Some of the Deutsche Telekom senior managers had used the opportunity of a strategy meeting in Berlin, last week, to discuss the valuation of T-Mobile, according to reports that have been made from a source who is close to the matter, but who has remained anonymous due to the confidential nature of the negotiations. The American wireless carrier has previously rejected an offer by Iliad SA of France, which occurred last month at a bid of $33 per share. By the time that this article was written, no higher offer had been presented.

The valuation of T-Mobile by Deutsche Telekom has, however, opened the door to better bids by Iliad or others.

Other potentials could include Dish Network Corp., as it had previously been in negotiations with Sprint Corp., which finally withdrew from talks in August.

Since John Legere became chief executive officer of the wireless carrier, it has managed to add millions of new customers to its previous totals. However, at the same time, holding onto that business comes with a number of potential risks for a parent company. For example, in the American market, it has considerable competition from Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc in the spectrum auctions that will be held both this year and next year. Moreover, spending must be steadily continued in order to continually upgrade its network.

Deutsche Telekom has a 67 percent stake in T-Mobile. After the announcement of the company’s interest in selling off that ownership – provided that the right offer is made – the wireless carrier’s stock immediately rose by 1.4 percent. It has been valued at $24.1 billion. Right before the announcement, in Frankfurt, the parent company saw a 0.9 percent dip in its own stock price.

The results of a survey conducted by Sage North America showed this is the case despite perceived value.

Sage North America has revealed the results of its most recent Sage SMB Survey on Mobile Devices, which included findings on a number of different industries and sectors that see potential value in mobile technology, but that do not set an annual budget to meet those needs.

Among the sectors included in this survey were food and beverage, manufacturing and distribution, and construction.

Those specific industry sectors felt that mobile technology could be overwhelmingly positive in terms of the impact that it has on business, but the vast majority of companies in these areas only purchase solutions in this category as the need arises, instead of setting an annual budget for this tech. According to the Sage North America executive vice president and general manager of mid-market solutions, Joe Langner, “With more than 40 percent reporting that they have a BYOD (bring your own device) policy in place, employers in all three industries may not see the need to budget for mobile since BYOD helps ensure that expenses are relatively small.”

At the same time the survey results still suggested that it is worthwhile for companies to plan for mobile technology.

Langner stated that it is evident that businesses are seeing the gains in productivity, which indicates that regardless of whether the tech is used as a part of an official BYOD (bring your own device) policy or for a specific item, this type of planning is worthwhile.

In manufacturing and distribution, the survey showed that 74 percent of companies are not creating a budget for these devices or mobile apps. That said 51 percent of those companies do actually use mobile devices as they have perceived their benefits. Among those, 76 percent have at least one employee that uses a laptop, 74 percent has at least one employee that uses a smartphone, and 49 percent have at least one employee that uses a tablet.

In construction, 77 percent of companies said that smartphones provided a positive impact on the productivity of their organization, though under 14 percent had a budget for the hardware or software.

Food and beverage saw the most positive impact of mobile technology in their customer service (73 percent). Among the respondents, one pointed out that these devices help to “answer questions even when we are not in the office.”