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I could swear I remember something about the spectrum remaining the property of the "pre-debtor estate" which would be old Fibertower would it not? Predicessor in interest...pre debtor estate. I dunno.
A wing and a prayer i suppose.
I wonder what Levy and Fahy are thinking. Sandpaints? Codesilver? Any thoughts? You've been leading us through this much the same way they have...
Your sudden silence is disconcerting.
Alright...Sonny...Helloyah...and whoever else wants to listen...Ive got just shy of 10% of the outstanding common shares accounted for through this board.
Neither of you has disclosed your ownership stake and that is fine. Neither has Codesilver or Sandpaints who are easily two of the most respected members of this forum. For all I know they may be Fahy and Levy.
It doesn't matter. We are all working towards a common goal whether you want to throw in the towel or not we all have some sort of stake here because nobody is going to waste their time bantering about a stock that has been dead for going on four years.
What do we do? Do we wait and see what happens? I'm inclined to belive there is still more going on behind the curtain than we realize. Just because the old common were cut out years ago doesn't mean AT&T doesn't realize they might have a right to bitch about it and slow down their ultimate goal.
The fact is that none of us knows exactly what is going on. We are all holding onto a glimmer of hope that there is still some justice left on this world. We all invested in this entity and had that extinguished by the wealthy who know how (and have the resources) to play the game better than we do.
SOMEBODY is holding onto a ton of this common stock and there is no flipping way it got dumped for $207 million just because they had an equally substantial interest in STRP as a hedge. These mother fuckers are greedier than we could ever be and no amount of money satisfies them or their shareholders.
Nobody gives a damn about us but we can ride the coattails of the ones who sure as shit give a damn about themsleves or we can actually band together and make life as miserable as possible for them while they try to dick us over.
It's time to cut out the shit and start having some intelligent conversations about what WE as shareholders intend to do moving forward.
I think there is still a glimmer of hope although it may be fading fast. If the 2Q report from AT&T shows a distribution of funds from the AT&T Mobility side and old fibertower shareholders have not been notified of any kind of disbursement then I believe it would be safe to say it is over.
At that point our only recourse would likely be to band together and file a class action lawsuit against all parties involved and force their hand.
Truth be told...I don't think anyone here is truly demanding an unreasonable payout. It is a matter of simply being rewarded for having the same foresight into the true value of an entity that the major players had. They just happen to have had the financial resources and knowledge of the legal loopholes to pull off a heist at the expense of the common shareholders. Kudos to them.
If we band together maybe they give us our $60 million to go away. If they don't and we have the balls to take it all the way AND a judge sees it our way AND there really was another billion dollars added to this transaction...then maybe we do end up splitting $1.2B 48 million ways and sticking it to them.
Likely? No. Possible? Anything is.
I sent the following out to IR earlier this week and have still not received a reply. I don't expect one necessarily but I didn't think it would hurt to try a slightly different approach.
===?======================================================
Greetings AT&T Investor Relations,
I have a couple of questions regarding the first quarter results for this year I was hoping you could assist me with.
First...under consolidated statements of cash flows / investing activities / advances to and investments in equity affiliates there is a line item for $1.007 billion dollars. Could you please detail which equity affiliate(s) this advancement/investment was allocated to?
Second...under supplemental operating information AT&T Mobility there was a 50.3% year over year increase in operating revenues for equipment. Could you please provide some details regarding what generated such a substantial increase in revenue in this sector?
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in replying to these questions.
Kind Regards,
As common shareholders in the old fibertower is it even possible for Fahy and Levy to dump us? Surely what's good for one or two common shareholders should not exclude all former shareholders.
In short...I think the answer is no. I think it's anyone's guess what transpires tomorrow. I certainly wouldn't expect any details to come out until Thursday or Friday. I think anyone expecting AT&T to come forward with a plan for making everyone happy is a little too much to hope for. At best we can hope the judge will continue to hear arguments made as to why the former shareholders still have skin in the game but I have a feeling that is a sidebar to anything else in the courts opinion.
The end is drawing nigh folks. You can cut the tension with a knife.
The only confidence I carry is that the reply to Fahy/Levy was heavily skewed toward "new Fibertower" and never addressed the fact that the bulk of the licenses remain the possession of "old Fibertower". Whether that means a darn thing or not will hopefully be answered this week.
Best of luck to all. It's been a fun ride.
I think the 207 million for the new fibertower is a done deal and I think we have been cut out of that for sure. That isn't a surprise though. All of those fancy words these lawyers use never address the fact that the bulk of the spectrum remains in the possession of old fibertower and its debtors/shareholders. This is where AT&T has to tread lightly and make sure things are settled in a "respectful manner" or this does get stuck in court for a very long time.
These lawyers do such an amazing job of keying in on certain points and highlighting things in a way that make you doubt that you could ever be right about anything. Their words are chosen so thoughtfully and precisely. Look at the gusto it was proclaimed that 207 million was the price of the transaction and that the claims by Levy and Fehy of billions being hidden and kept from the public record are preposterous. It is enough to almost make you feel guilty for having the thought that there are two separate entities in new/old fibertower at play here. Of course new fibertower wants to walk away with everything and of course their lawyers are going to word things in such a way that a convincing argument to that effect is made...but at&t doesn't care who they write a check to...they just want their spectrum and any judge worth their salt will read past all of the legal posturing and see the reality of the situation...provided they aren't in someone's pocket or worse...failing to familiarize themselves with all of the details of the case.
Probably posturing language inserted by "new Fibertower" in hopes of stealing everything. The check AT&T writes is the same regardless of who it's made out to. They don't care who gets paid. They just want their spectrum and they want it now.
That statement leads me to believe that the $207 million was still for the purchase of "new Fibertower" and that additional payment in some form would be warrented for the returned licenses. Perhaps that is what is being worked out but then again maybe not. At $4.31/share based on the old fibertower share count and with the new Fibertower successfully taking licenses during the restructuring while the remaining disputed licenses were always old fibertower property it would be conceivable that $2-3/share is a possibility. I guess. I don't know.
Want to say thank you to those of you who are far smarter and have more available resources to pursue the information that comes to this board. If it wasn't for all of you there wouldn't be a board to come to for that information or to vent our frustrations.
17% down to 4%? They didn't lose that many of the licenses back to the FCC. They lost a chunk for sure but not 75%. What am I missing?
Where else could you buy this much entertainment and suspense for two cents a share?!
https://www.soluslp.com/global/firm.aspx
"Solus Alternative Asset Management L.P. is a privately held, SEC-registered investment advisor. The Firm specializes in investing in event-driven, distressed and special situation opportunities. Based in New York City, Solus currently manages approximately $6 billion in assets for a diversified group of institutional investors and family offices worldwide."
Say Pucillo owned ALL of Fibertower...which he doesn't...and he brands spectrum as the oceanfront property that is nearly gone...which he has...do you think he would let it go at a mere 3.5% of his entire portfolio?
They specialize in distressed assets and they squeeze every drop of blood out of that turnip they possibly can. The beauty is they recognize it is a long agonizing process that can take years to pay off.
AT&T has their guaranteed (albeit tiny) footprint with their acquisition of "new Fibertower" and their existing licenses for $207 million.
I will gladly step down off my soapbox if someone can show me evidence that the returned licenses aren't the property of the pre-debtor estate and the "old Fibertower" regime.
Until then I'm going to cling to the coattails of people far smarter, crafter, and with far more at stake than any of us has. Including you Vuletini...
Because they can't lie in the press release. They can however spin it anyway they choose.
It's a shame too...because that is what those people are employed to do.
All due respect...many of us here have been studying this situation for going on eight years or more. I doubt a beat writer who cranks out a 2000 word column everyday took a whole lot of care in doing their due diligence and proper research. I can assure you they know far less about what is going on here than we do. Especially when their primary source is the press release. They took the easy facts and ran with them to meet their quota.
Many thanks to Sandpaints for the contacts he has made and here's hoping they are able to do some real investigative journalism on behalf of all of us.
All very good questions...I expect your reply will be another regurgitation of the original press release. There has been no transparency from them which tells me there has to be more to the story.
It's clear that AT&T purchased "new Fibertower" for $207 million. The only question remaining is who do those licenses the FCC "returned" belong to? Didn't the bankruptcy court say that if the licenses were returned at some point they would become the property of the pre-debtor estate? "New Fibertower" can try to claim they belong to them all they want, but I haven't seen any evidence that says to me they are in possession of all of those returned licenses.
I don't know everyone...perhaps we are grasping at straws but those words "pre-debtor estate" are pretty powerful. If the purchase price was indeed only $207 million for everything then I would like my $4.31/share because nothing that I've seen leads me to believe those returned licenses belong to anyone but "old Fibertower". You, me, Samberg, Pucillo, etc.
I don't think the $207 million even makes those major players whole again from their initial investment. There is simply no possible way Pucillo touts the value of spectrum and then gives it all up for nothing. The greedy glimmer in his eye when he talks about it in those Bloomberg interviews says it all. I'm not saying we win out in all of this by any means. I'm only saying those players didn't get to where they are by being inept.
I'd like to think we are still dealing with some fairly smart people albeit shady as all get out...
Anyone think it's possible that Fibertower did the deal for $207 million just to get the ball rolling on Straightpath (Solus obviously well invested there too) with the full intention of dragging this back into bankruptcy court in order to achieve fair market value for the returned licenses once the market had been established?
I dunno...grasping at straws maybe...but Pucillo at the least knows exactly what they were holding. He isn't letting go for peanuts without one hell of a parachute.
Sandpaints? Codesilver? Your insights would be appreciated. We all kind of look to ya'll for guidance.
I have got to believe you are right about the $207 million being for new Fibertower and its existing licenses.
New Fibertower doesn't own the licenses that were in dispute. Those were to be returned to the pre-debtor estate which as I understood was old Fibertower.
I'm thinking what we are seeing here is a combination of dominos falling into place in a particular order, and misinformed/uneducated media seeing a number a jumping on it rather than doing proper due diligence.
I believe the AT&T purchase of new Fibertower has officially been completed, but that the bankruptcy court will still have to determine the fate of the remaining licenses that the FCC returned last week.
On the surface this looks really really bad and like we could be finished but with the way Pucillo has spoken about spectrum in the past, I simply can't believe he and the others would allow their oceanfront property to be purchased for the price of a few acres in Kansas compared to what Straightpath was purchased for. One would think there is a contingency clause in the agreement for a purchase price for the disputed licenses in the event they were returned.
Just another brick in the wall of progress I suppose. Can't expect the FCC to mandate or rule on anything other than where the spectrum goes. Certainly not expecting them to determine AT&T has to pay the shareholders. Of course Fibertower is going to say we shouldn't get anything. It's entirely up to AT&T to determine what their version of closing the deal in a respectful manner entails.
I have a feeling we are getting close to knowing our fate.
I was eluding to the number of shares that were available. There were no 100,000 share blocks available. Orders would get pieced together a few hundred or thousand at a time in many cases. Had it been the big boys dumping then I would think an order for 100,000 shares on the ask would have gone far more rapidly.
For the life of me I can't find the video on Bloomberg where the host asked Pucillo point blank where someone who wants to get into spectrum should put their money. Pucillo's response was pointed when he said "you can't". If I ever find the link I will post it but that says one of two things...either he meant a regular investor can't get involved on the level he is...OR he meant that's its impossible to be invested in Fibertower because those comments were made after the bankruptcy and it wasn't possible to buy the stock anymore.
When I was purchasing my shares they weren't always easy to come by. Days would pass before an order got filled in some cases. Had the big players been selling the orders would have filled immediately. I believe they were accumulating when it was trading at sub dime levels and distinctly remember a point in time close to the end where the price tripled from two cents a share to six cents a share. That tells me they were accumulating up to the end either as a hedge or part of a well thought out plan.
Or maybe that's exactly what Fibertower wants to have happen. In one of those videos Pucillo said there is only so much spectrum. Someday it will all be gone. What if fibertower is intentionally holding this up in litigation in order to watch the prices skyrocket at auction and suddenly the escalator clause in the contract kicks in and they are the only players in the game left with spectrum. Per the agreement with the FCC its locked up with Fibertower until what? 2023? Hmmmmm
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2017-05-18/solus-ceo-says-gsat-spectrum-may-appeal-to-amazon-video?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=bd&utm_campaign=headline&cmpId=yhoo.headline
I'm sure everyone has seen this but it's a good reminder. Any of the videos on Bloomberg with Pucillo being interviewed elude to his ownership stake in Fibertower without ever saying the name.
How much did he scoop up at 2 cents back then to put himself in the position to be part of the restructuring? I've got to believe a deal that includes the common allows him to cash out twice and at an even bigger ROI.
Not to mention the windfall STRP got for being far more deceitful and doing even less with their "buildout".
If the annual report is due out on Wednesday...wouldnt you think some clue as to the actual purchase price of Fibertower would have to come to light then? I just can't believe that a publicly traded company would be able to keep their investors in the dark for too much longer over such an important acquisition.
Imagine it comes to light that they only paid $750 million for something valued at $1.5 billion.
Where the hell is Vuletini anyway? I miss his snide and cryptic comments...you'd think Mr 4.4% would have something to say...
I think Sandpaints is trying to tell us something...
Sandpaints...not long ago you had a very through dialogue with the author of an article on a comment board. You brought many things to his attention. Is this who you contacted or have you had further discussion with him? You certainly sparked an interest on his part with your knowledge of the circumstances here.
It still floors me that at&t has not been forced to disclose the terms of purchase and even more so that the information has not been leaked.
A while back I had asked everyone here to post the number of shares they owned and while the response was pretty lukewarm I was able to account for roughly 10% of the 48 million outstanding shares. I'm sure you have a significant stake here as well.
My point is simply this...anyone who holds shares here is part of one of the most exclusive clubs on earth right now. How many other companies have such a high potential value with so few shares outstanding and just how many of those shares are held in large amounts by big players like Chris Pucillo? If there are more than 100 total people on earth with an interest here I would be stunned.
I'm waiting for someone a lot smarter than me to comment but yes...i think this was the terms of the settlement to reinstate the licenses which belong to the old fibertower and AT&T paid for all the shares of the old fibertower. I think we lost some licenses. Paid some fines. Etc etc. But they didn't get us for free. They just didn't overpay either.
An arbitrary number for a significant payout yet still only enough that we could complain about not getting what we were worth and be right about it,but happy enough to be quiet or risk losing it back to the courts.
When based on the way decisions were levied out in the past you might think so...but I think at&t baited verizon and they bit hook line and sinker. AT&T can now go buy spectrum at an auction Verizon won't be bidding at and they can outbid or jack up the prices for anyone else. They get another bargain either way. The FCC got another cut. A third player gets to enter the game with the big boys. Hint...a mobile carrier whose name starts with a T. We all paid a nickel or less for our shares. You gonna be pissed with $2-3/share? Seriously?
Do we deserve more? Fuck no. We stumbled on this based on a hunch about future tech during the long planned stock market crash and everything was a bargain. We grabbed onto some coattails.
If we do get paid and it happens to be in stock...I suggest holding and inky cashing out dividends. Just saying...
That's what I believe yes. AT&T isn't going to bid $1.5 billion for something tomorrow that it got for $60 million yesterday. But I believe they got a hell of an f'ing deal.
I'm waiting for Vuletini to comment. I know you're watching.
What seems like decades ago I believe he said between $200 and $400 million total for the purchase. There's a lot of backroom snickering between TPTB going on about what Verizon paid for straightpath. AT&T just grabbed a huge profitability advantage over everyone else.
We should still get paid...something...not enough to make us feel like we got a big enough piece of the pie for a huge asset...but enough that it will be the greatest trade any of us ever made or will make again.
Admittedly I do not read these legal documents very well...but to me it seems this decision simply reinstates the licenses the FCC had take to Fibertower and they are now officially free to do with them as they see fit. I believe the money paid by Fibertower and AT&T is simply a reinstatement fee so to speak. Now AT&T can officially purchase Fibertower with all of the licenses that were returned for whatever the agreed upon price was in the event this happened.
What am I missing? I can see where they may have lost some licenses so they can be auctioned off (satisfying tmobile) but I don't think this has anything to do with us. I think this is the agreement about what assets have been returned to Fibertower and what they lost...now AT&T and Fibertower have to do the math to figure out the actual purchase price based on what they got back.
It says AT&T agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of Fibertower Corporation. Is this not us?
I don't think we've seen the end here...but it is definitely looking like AT&T stole Fibertower and laughed as they jacked up the asking price for straightpath for Verizon.
Condoe...in an effort to see if there was any way to find a purchase price for Fibertower anywhere I took a glance at AT&T's quarterly report. The only nugget I could find was under the assets section where the value of their spectrum had increased by 1.4 billion from December 31st 2016 to June 30th, 2017. I don't remember seeing that posted on here anywhere but thought it might be worth a mention. I'm sure there is some appreciation in light of recent events but do you think it's possible that could give us a little more of a ballpark figure than we've dealt with previously? Or would that not even be on their books yet since the transaction for Fibertower hasn't been finalized? At some point I figure the transaction would have to be detailed in a quarterly or annual report since their shareholders have to be advised of the details.
Transcribo?
My gut tells me you are right on the money. I suppose it is possible that they drastically underbid STRP in hopes of stealing them out from under everyone after over paying for Fibertower... But I doubt it. I think at best they tried to get STRP for what they paid for Fibertower.
Any number of ways to try and cut the common out...only one way to keep the spectrum from being tied up further in court and useless indefinitely.