Two of the smaller U.S. carriers, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless (Cricket), have recently reported their Q4 2009 earnings. Here’s the recap:
MetroPCS:
- 11% growth during the year
- 1.3 million net additions in the year
- 6.6 million subscribers in total
Leap Wireless (Cricket):
- 29% more subscribers than last year
- 1.1 million net additions in the year
- 4.95 million subscribers in total
Personally I don’t cover quarterly results that often. However, these two may be merging in the near future. Both carriers have hired investment banks for strategic advice — MetroPCS got JP Morgan Chase, and Leap Wireless – Goldman Sachs. In addition, Leap has recently formed a joint venture with Pocket Communications to expand its service and the Cricket brand in South Texas, and eventually to increase the valuation of the company.
From the numbers above we can clearly see two things: who has more money/subscribers (MetroPCS) and who’s growing at a faster pace (Leap). Hopefully we’ll soon know where all this leads. With growing competition among the telcos, forming a single more powerful company makes perfect sense to me. We’ll keep watching…
[Via: MobileBurn]