2Degress announces changes in CEO, shareholding

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › 2Degress announces changes in CEO, shareholding

freitasm

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#37548 15-Jul-2009 09:37

More information here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=8324

In short "Trilogy International Partners intends to increase its shareholding in 2degrees from 26 percent to 52 percent" and EO Mike Reynolds being replaced by Eric Hertz.

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#235488 15-Jul-2009 09:45

Looking from the outside in, its not exactly great news for 2 degrees.

Some people (im sure many) are looking forward to this new network. To hear that the CEO has gone may send the message of a company that isnt working out. Im sure if he was on a healthy profit or wage he wouldnt of left.

Just my opinion, i havent read the article or anything though.

walt12

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#235540 15-Jul-2009 10:42

I guess this is a reality check on supporting the locally-owned NZ company. Before this change it wasn't in majority hands, neither is it now. But that is the harsh reality of the telco business that requires large sums of capital upfront to roll out a new network.

Just remember that these equity partners require a decent return on their capital, otherwise they will just as quickly exit their holdings. This speaks to what we should expect in terms of plan pricing when announced. Competition, yes, but not cut-throat.

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#235600 15-Jul-2009 12:34

Guess the profits for the share holders will now drive the pricing for the users. A triopoly anyone??

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Old3eyes

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#235626 15-Jul-2009 13:15

Actually from the inside looking out this is great news for us and New Zealanders. While we are sad to be loosing Mike :-( (but hey when a great opportunity comes up ... you'd be silly not to take it) it really does mean what we say in the media release that it will "fortify the company to take on the incumbents and deliver on our promise to bring better value to mobile users in New Zealand".

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slippers

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#235698 15-Jul-2009 15:10

Yeah, I don't really see how this reflects badly on 2 Degrees...

In some ways if something like that was going to happen - now is the best time, right at the completion of network build and test.... Hes done his job..

Whoever takes over will front the next stage.

A quick google will show that the outgoing and the incoming have worked on projects before and this new guys background is in with the same crowd anyway.

NonprayingMantis

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#235710 15-Jul-2009 15:38

I'm pretty surprised.

It's not uncommon for a CEO to step down once the launch of a new company/product line has happened. A successful launch looks good on a CEO's CV.

It's pretty rare for the CEO to step down bwefore the launch - it's very likley his remuneration would have been heavily weighted towards a successful launch. If he is leaving now then it could signal to the market that he believes the launch will not be successful i.e. he does not wish to be associated with a failed launch.

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#235838 15-Jul-2009 21:11

NonprayingMantis: I'm pretty surprised.

It's not uncommon for a CEO to step down once the launch of a new company/product line has happened. A successful launch looks good on a CEO's CV.

It's pretty rare for the CEO to step down bwefore the launch - it's very likley his remuneration would have been heavily weighted towards a successful launch. If he is leaving now then it could signal to the market that he believes the launch will not be successful i.e. he does not wish to be associated with a failed launch.

My thoughts exactly.

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tardtasticx

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#235839 15-Jul-2009 21:14

FordB:
NonprayingMantis: I'm pretty surprised.

It's not uncommon for a CEO to step down once the launch of a new company/product line has happened. A successful launch looks good on a CEO's CV.

It's pretty rare for the CEO to step down bwefore the launch - it's very likley his remuneration would have been heavily weighted towards a successful launch. If he is leaving now then it could signal to the market that he believes the launch will not be successful i.e. he does not wish to be associated with a failed launch.

My thoughts exactly.

Lets just hope that this is not the case

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#235844 15-Jul-2009 21:29

freitasm:
In short "Trilogy International Partners intends to increase its shareholding in 2degrees from 26 percent to 52 percent" and EO Mike Reynolds being replaced by Eric Hertz.

Anyone know if Eric Hertz is a step forward or a step back for 2deg?

Finch

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#235848 15-Jul-2009 21:44

TinyTim:
freitasm:
In short "Trilogy International Partners intends to increase its shareholding in 2degrees from 26 percent to 52 percent" and EO Mike Reynolds being replaced by Eric Hertz.

Anyone know if Eric Hertz is a step forward or a step back for 2deg?

Well according to 2degrees post up above, Its great news that they changed CEO before the network has launched.

If you ask 2degrees. Step Forward
Ask a consumer: Step Back.

Just my opinion ;)

slippers

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#235849 15-Jul-2009 21:47

What would constitute a -failed- launch? ..

What would constitute a -successful- launch?

The issue surrounding MTRs must be taken into consideration imo. There would need to be some headway with that in the medium term though.

A lot would have to go wrong to constitute a 'failure' in my books.....

...A successful launch would be to simply meet all the expectations they've set for the public, introduce pricing that genuinely does give people the option of calling rather than texting.....and driving prices down...

You'd have to expect Telecom and Voda to follow suit fairly quickly pricewise......... its quite noticable the amount of 24 months deals (prety good deals too) that are being pushed at the moment by Telecom.

It will become a matter of service over price in no time.

freitasm

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#235854 15-Jul-2009 21:54

TinyTim:
freitasm:
In short "Trilogy International Partners intends to increase its shareholding in 2degrees from 26 percent to 52 percent" and EO Mike Reynolds being replaced by Eric Hertz.

Anyone know if Eric Hertz is a step forward or a step back for 2deg?

No idea, but I was contacted and might be meeting him when he comes back to New Zealand before taken the helm - he will be in Wellington and it seems we might have some time to meet.

spk18

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#235875 15-Jul-2009 22:48

My 2 degrees worth... there are other reasons of course and I am not saying that these are correct but consider:

(1) new majority owners often want their own man in the job (and I realise that the new guy is internal but this doesnt mean it will stay that way medium term); and

(2) building a new mobile network is a very different set of skills from successfully running a mobile network.

In my view we should hold fire on judging what is going on internally - these changes do not suggest to me (though admittedly I know nothing of the internal machinations of the company) that we should yet be concerned.

NonprayingMantis

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#235963 16-Jul-2009 09:14

slippers: What would constitute a -failed- launch? ..

What would constitute a -successful- launch?

The issue surrounding MTRs must be taken into consideration imo. There would need to be some headway with that in the medium term though.

A lot would have to go wrong to constitute a 'failure' in my books.....

...A successful launch would be to simply meet all the expectations they've set for the public, introduce pricing that genuinely does give people the option of calling rather than texting.....and driving prices down...

You'd have to expect Telecom and Voda to follow suit fairly quickly pricewise......... its quite noticable the amount of 24 months deals (prety good deals too) that are being pushed at the moment by Telecom.

It will become a matter of service over price in no time.

There would likely be some KPIs around market share gain, cost of sales budgets, that sort of thing.

A successful launch might be to gain X thousand customers by a certain date, ARPUs of $X, whilst managing cost of sales to ensure it stays below $Xm.

CEO remuneration would be strongly incentivised around those targets – often in an all or nothing approach. i.e. he gets $1m bonus if he reaches all his targets, if he doesn’t, he gets nothing.

If the CEO believes that he will not achieve those targets, and thus will not get his bonus, then he will probably be looking around for new opportunities he can move to sooner rather than later.

The cost of sales one is the publicly obvious one – clearly 2d are going to incur massive COS because of the MTR, but really it could be anything. They might be way behind in SIM registration, they might be realising that with their pricing plans their ARPUs are going to be too low for example.

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#235972 16-Jul-2009 09:32

spk18:

(1) new majority owners often want their own man in the job (and I realise that the new guy is internal but this doesnt mean it will stay that way medium term); and

Is he internal? And does he have any connection to Trinity? I don't think the media release said either of these things. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

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