Worst of the Week: Picking up the shattered WOTW pieces

Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Sprint this week nearly brought my Worst of the Week efforts to its knees with its announced plans to change leadership and forgo – for now – plans to acquire rival T-Mobile US.
For those three long-time readers, you know that I have been all in favor of Sprint attempting to acquire T-Mobile US. Not because it’s the right business decision, but because it would just be fun to watch. But, that dream has now seemingly come to an end. And probably for the best, as such a process would have been a blood-bath for both companies, which while fun to watch, had the potential to be disastrous for anyone within a 1,000-mile radius.
Despite running across the country, dropping hints that the domestic market, the U.S. and the entire universe would be better off if there was a stronger No. 3 player in the space, and making sure to not actually mention T-Mobile US, Sprint/Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son appears to have capitulated to regulatory pressure. And by “pressure” I mean the Federal Communications Commission basically coming out and saying there is no way in hell it will approve such a deal and if somehow a proposed deal were to still be consummated, that combined entity would be burdened with such regulations that it would be doomed to fail.
I guess one side benefit from this mess is that Son now appears even more set on starting a price war, which should be good for everyone.
As for Sprint’s decision to change leadership, I am of mixed feelings. Sure, Sprint probably needed some new blood at the top to go along with recent changes in leadership below the CEO level. But, it’s still difficult to see anyone lose their job, though it’s a little easier when that “anyone” is going to be well-protected by a golden parachute.
Dan Hesse’s tenure at Sprint will obviously be looked upon with a negative light, at least initially, as the carrier has obviously struggled operationally over the past several years. However, I am not sure anyone could have steered Sprint through the challenges it brought on itself, including the ongoing integration of Nextel, replacing its entire network infrastructure through Network Vision, shutting down its iDEN network, acquiring and integrating Clearwire, being acquired by Softbank, shutting down its WiMAX operations, etc., etc., etc.
Regardless, that’s what a CEO is supposed to do, and it would seem that Hesse had his fair share of wins and losses in that regard.
More troubling was Hesse’s change in demeanor over the past six-plus years. When he came into the leadership position at Sprint, Hesse was the cool, new guy on the block. Showing up at trade shows without the team of handlers that accompanied his peers and sporting questionable casual attire. But, over the past couple of years, Hesse’s hipness was replaced by a stodginess that was perhaps part maturity and part having the weight of Sprint’s internal troubles firmly on his shoulders. Kind of hard to find the confidence to play the cool cat when your house is crumbling down around you.
But, hey, that has all changed, and we are now entering a new era at Sprint. Sure, that era will not include the added challenge of attempting to integrate with T-Mobile US, but that is probably for the best.
As for T-Mobile US, it looks like its recent success may have endeared it once again to parent company Deutsche Telekom, which for years has not been able to decide what to do with its U.S. outlet. For now at least it appears the decision is to maintain control, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that mindset were to change at the drop of a dollar – or at least more than $15 billion.
So, with Sprint/T-Mobile US now off the table, I guess it’s time to re-focus my WOTW efforts on something anew. Hmmm, did someone say “spectrum auctions!”
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Just in case you were under the assumption that we would not be replaced by robots in the near future, IBM this week announced what it claims is the first “neurosynaptic computer chip to achieve an unprecedented scale of one million programmable neurons, 256 million programmable synapses and 46 billion synaptic operations per second per watt.”
Sounds impressive, until you read where IBM claims this “is a significant step towards bringing cognitive computers to society.”
“There is a huge disparity between the human brain’s cognitive capability and ultra-low power consumption when compared to today’s computers. To bridge the divide, IBM scientists created something that didn’t previously exist – an entirely new neuroscience-inspired scalable and efficient computer architecture that breaks path with the prevailing von Neumann architecture used almost universally since 1946.”
Translation: SkyNet.

–Finally, big “thumbs down” to T-Mobile US CEO John Legere, who seemed to take delight in the continued freefall at Sprint. Sure, it’s a cut-throat business and Legere has made himself out to be the cool, outsider among wireless carrier CEOs. (A part once played by Hesse.)
Legere took to his favorite medium – Twitter – to encourage folks to abandon the “sinking ship” that is Sprint. While, that may be the case, that sinking ship is likely to cost a number of current Sprint employees who had nothing to do with that company’s current calamity to lose their jobs. Unless Legere is offering up positions at T-Mobile US for those people, perhaps he may want to tone down the taunting.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter