5 years ago this week, Windstream stock was $62 a share. This morning it was 0.0825. HA HA!
13 replies (most recent on top)
WIN was the only company foolish enough to buy up CLEC networks, they wont sell. They cost 50xs more to operate then they make. This is why WIN is pushing CLEC customers to sd wan and byob with officesuite. You dont need the bloated CLEC networks to provide that service. As soon as enough of a percentage of those customers are converted they can just close the doors on the CLEC side. That is going to be the bankruptcy plan, they just cant share it yet as employees on the clec side will panic. Software companies do not have layer after layer of clec networks just sitting idle with very little traffic with equipment from the 90s
Not a problem. He's launching a couple of hundred this month. And unlike here, I'm sure there is redundancy built in.
And ironically, I'm quite certain he could fix a satellite before win could fix my dsl, that they haven't gotten right since installing.
”“SpaceX's Starlink Broadband Service Will Begin in 2020:“
I’ll believe it when I see it. Remember Irridium?
SpaceX is an interesting company but like Elon Musk’s other companies (Tesla, etc) its very speculative and in a lot of debt. Also, it’s easier to upgrade fiber broadband than satellite broadband - you have to launch a new satellite ($$).
” I foresee ILEC getting sold to UNITI and the CLEC sold to high bidder.
There maybe legal and tax issues with a real estate investment trust (REIT) operating a phone network. Normally, REITs can’t operate stuff.
It’s sort of technical, legally and tax-wise. Somebody on the seekingalpha.com message board would know the rules.
Also, Windstream has about a billion dollars in tax loss carryforwards that probably evaporate if it gets acquired by someone else. That’s the rule I was told when a company I worked with was in chapter 11 and considering selling itself. Again, that’s a highly technical tax question.
The ILEC assets have some value because they are a utility and a monopoly by nature. If you are in a Kinetic footprint great, if not there is no value.
The CLEC business on the other hand does not. Most of the value is in the transport network. Yes we still need to get those fiber/10G pipes to the tower's. Problem is UNITI, they still own the outside plant. Without WIN they have few customers.
I foresee ILEC getting sold to UNITI and the CLEC sold to high bidder.
“SpaceX's Starlink Broadband Service Will Begin in 2020:“
Yeah.... You heave YEARS!
Maybe they should bundle wired phones with lamp oil and dinosaur food.
It’s over.
"With cell coverage expanding exponentially virtually overnight, ILEC and CLEC are obsolete commodities. "
In case you didn't know, ILEC and CLEC handle a lot of fiber to those towers for the carriers. Lots of 1 gig and 10 gig circuits for various carriers. Not obsolete overnight by a long shot.
Right.
The days of building a business based on the electrified version of 2 corn cans and a string are well over.
Give it up with the ILEC bit. Providing a dial tone at high rates due to monopoly is not an amazing feat. And if you dont know how the CLEC equipment is being used for the ILEC circuits then you have NOT been paying attention.
Liquidated means selling those customers to another carrier.
And they would have a hard time of even finding a buyer for those. With cell coverage expanding exponentially virtually overnight, ILEC and CLEC are obsolete commodities.
"Another possibility is the company will be liquidated."
You can still make money in the ILEC business if run right. I don't know about the CLEC side.
This company is worth more to the creditors alive than dead and liquidated. The creditors would get very little in a liquidation of Windstream assets.
The ILEC is fixable with the right people. A lot of hard work, but doable. It's why some very smart financial companies have bought up Windstream bonds (at a discount) - to fix it post-bankruptcy and cash in.
Besides, the Feds would never allow liquidation. Windstream's ILEC operates across 10-15 states and dozens of Congressional districts. Cut telecom service to several million Americans and they'll start screaming at Congress – much more loudly than normal even for our political times.
As someone else wrote, the Windstream mess is like Puerto Rico after the hurricane – except Windstream customers have votes in Congress.
Issuing new stock is a ‘possibility’. After months, win has yet to show any progress to developing a plan that would then have to be approved by creditors and or court, before this would happen.
Another possibility is the company will be liquidated.
Actually, the stock is worthless. There was a filing in bankruptcy court on this question early on.
It still trades as a "penny stock" because there are scammers in "boiler rooms" touting it and then manipulating the over-the-counter market for that stock.
The creditors would have to be paid off in full for the shareholders to get much.
If all but the unsecured creditors got paid off and then the unsecured creditors were _mostly_ paid off, then shareholders might get a little.
As it is, the unsecured debt is valued at 10¢ to 15¢ per dollar of face value. I think there's over $1 billion in unsecured debt that Windstream owed.
New stock will be issued to creditors at the end of bankruptcy. The old shares will be officially cancelled.