Private Equity Focus
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WILMER CUTLER PICKERING HALE AND DORR LLP Private Equity Focus NOVEMBER 8, 2004 The Wireless Industry Glynn D. Key Atish Gude Michael Hannon John Muleta n October 25, Glynn D. Key, a partner Rajendra Singh is CEO of Telecom Ven- in the Corporate Department, hosted tures, LLC, and co-founder of Teligent and LCC Oa distinguished panel of investors and International. executives who play significant roles in the private equity and wireless industry. The panelists were assembled to explore the current issues facing private equity investment in Atish Gude is Vice President, Strategic Plan- the wireless industry as seen from their respective ning and Corporate Strategy, Nextel. roles in the market place: Michael Hannon is a Partner at JPMorgan • Nextel - strategic investor, large wireless Partners and Co-Head of the telecommunications, service provider, and major consumer of media and technology practice. wireless applications and equipment. John Muleta is Chief of the Wireless Bureau • JPMorgan Partners - international investor of the Federal Communications Commission. in middle market buyouts, growth equity and venture, $13 billion under manage- Jay Koh is a Principal at The Carlyle ment. Group. WILMER CUTLER PICKERING HALE AND DORR LLP This letter is for general informational purposes only and does not represent our legal advice as to any particular set of facts, nor does this letter represent any undertaking to keep recipients advised as to all relevant legal developments. • FCC - US regulator. o Cingular received clearance to com- plete its $41 billion merger with AT&T • The Carlyle Group - international MBOs, Wireless. strategic minority investments, consoli- dations and venture, $18 billion under o CTIA announced that there were over management. 170 million cell phone subscribers as of this past summer. • Telecom Ventures - early to mid-stage in- vestment in wireless system operations and o Craig McCaw and his Clearwire team emerging wireless technologies, several announced a WiMax deal with Intel hundred million dollar family investment and a corresponding investment in vehicle. Craig’s Clearwire broadband wireless offering. The panelists explored the private equity world of wireless across the landscape of (i) the o Lucent recorded first annual profit future demand for services; (ii) the displacement since 2000 fueled by rapid growth in of existing technologies with new generation tech- wireless telephone division. nologies; (iii) the shifting regulatory landscape; and (iv) the unknown standards requirements. o Verizon announced that 45% of its There was a spirited exchange among the panel- revenues now come from wireless ists and the audience of investors and industry services unit. executives. • As our conference was proceeding, Here are some gems from the discussion: Cingular was receiving clearance from the FCC and DOJ for its acquisition of The next frontier in the wireless space is that of AT&T Wireless. This merger between convergence. Atish Gude, Nextel the largest wireline telephone companies’ wireless affiliates and the largest wireless • The October 2004 US IPO of Jamdat (a represents the largest convergence to date. mobile gaming company) shows that the The company is banking on the bundling capital market is still an exit strategy for a of broadband services to its 46 million limited number of sectors of the wireless subscribers. industry. The focus for the private equity world in wireless is increasingly becom- Domestically, wireless applications are attractive. ing applications and middleware centered Internationally, we lean toward services. Mike driven. Hannon, JPMorgan Partners • In the large percentage of the population • Europe and Asia are the hot spots for 3G that has access to wireless and/or mobile and component technologies. devices, US wireless is the growth industry for the telecommunications industry in • Private equity/buyout opportunities in both equipment and services: wireless are best not in the US but in places overseas with a relative stable government o Nextel 3rd quarter profit up 69%. WILMER CUTLER PICKERING HALE AND DORR LLP 2 WWW.WILMERHALE.COM environment and a solid financial sector • The establishment of a marketplace where multiple exit platforms are in place mindset where the cell phone is not just (e.g. IPOs, strategic buyers have capital, a communication device but a device that etc.). enables the exchange of ideas and also, increasingly, goods and services. The discussion ended with some sage words from Dr. Raj Singh who observed that there are • The advent of hybridization where all four trends in the wireless industry. His takeaway networks are hybrid networks composed was that any investor or inventor in the wireless of wireless, cable coax, copper, and fi- space should make sure that his or her business ber. In hybrid networks, the value added strategy does not align against more than one of comes from taking a position that takes these trends: advantage of the hybridization instead of fighting against it (e.g., content or applica- • Cultural change is significant and being tions have to flow across all elements of driven by youth’s consumption and use the hybrid network instead of being stove patterns. If you don’t know how a young piped). person uses technology and how important wireless is to that experience, you should * * * quickly learn. For more information, please contact: • Enabling wireless technologies are a growth sector because of the need for Glynn D. Key +1 (202) 663-6091 wireless applications and content to be [email protected] easily accessible for consumer use. This means more focus on wireless middleware opportunities. WWW.WILMERHALE.COM WWW.WILMERHALE.COM 3 WILMER CUTLER PICKERING HALE AND DORR LLP.