Cricket-eating MetroPCS

As rumored at the time of their April IPO, MetroPCS is today offering to buy San Diego-based Leap Wireless, operator of the Cricket mobile phone service.

Both are “all you can eat” CDMA carriers, and both are adding subscribers at far above the national rate (45% and Leap — a 1998 Qualcomm spinoff — got their first, but its growth was long stalled due to poor timing of buying expensive equipment (with expensive vendor financing) near the peak of the bubble, eventually resulting in recapitalization through bankruptcy. MetroPCS came along in 2002 and has had an uninterrupted run of success over the past five years.

With its concentration on major metro markets, MetroPCS is slightly bigger overall, while Leap has more licenses in more cities. Both have roaming problems — lacking the coverage of a Verizon or even a T-Mobile. But the Leap has partially addressed that by clustering nearby markets (like Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and El Paso or Phoenix-Tuscon), to solve the most likely roaming needs of a subset of customers.

The MetroPCS investor presentation shows the combined markets covered by the two firms, including a strong cluster of licenses in California. Together the two firms would have licenses (if not coverage) in nearly all of the top 25 and top 200 markets.


The two are obviously stronger together, and MetroPCS (ticker: PCS) is bigger than its prey, with a $10 billion market cap vs. $5.5 billion for Leap (ticker: PCS). Other than prior bad blood over alleged patent infringement, executive egos and layoffs at Leap’s San Diego headquarters, it seems like all that’s left is haggling over the price. Red Herring notes that investors bid prices above the offering price in anticipation of a better offer, despite the efforts by Metro’s CEO Robert Linquist to convince the market that the Leap stock price has included an acquisition premium since April.

The only thing that went beyond the normal range of hyperbole is that the merger creates “a fifth national wireless carrier.” As of June 2007, the combined companies would have barely been the sixth largest carrier in the US with 6.2 million subscribers, versus 12.2 million for Alltel and 6.0 million for U.S. Cellular. (Both CDMA carriers). So while MetroLeap might have more licenses, it would have rather thin penetration.

If they pull it off, the more important question may be: what’s the endgame? The one thing protecting MetroLeap from being squashed like a bug is that the big boys can only compete on price by cannibalizing existing revenues, something they are loathe to do. So who would be the next MetroLeap merger? Would either Alltel or U.S. Cellular be willing to shift to a flat-rate model to enable a nationwide attack on the big four? And since the national market has consolidated from six to four carriers (or perhaps 5½ to 3½), can the market really support another national carrier?

Technorati Tags: CDMA, Leap Wireless, MetroPCS, mobile phones