FreedomPop has been sold to Red Pocket

[HFUN]

Was Freedompop even profitable?

[high technology]

The article says Red Pocket bought the name for high 8 figs. It is questionable that even the GSM customers are worth that. This is very strange and smells like STS did one last screw job.

The way FreedomPop does their marketing, they probably sold the business for $500,001.00, which to them would be "high eight digits"

On a more serious note, I hope this isn't the beginnings of RP getting into the VOIP game.

[Haas_Dave]

On a more serious note, I hope this isn't the beginnings of RP getting into the VOIP game.

Good point

[zapjb]

Very good point I really dislike VOIP.

[clocks11]

I just started my 1yr card bought at target. Will be interesting what it gets converted to, if anything, or if I am screwed. About to go on vacation, so I hope I don't get cutoff.

[zapjb]

Unless FP management is moving in & throwing out RP management I think you're ok.

[djphilosophy]

People always assumed there was no way FP could make a profit on totally free service. I figure they sold personal data (location, websites visited) for profit. It seems the GSM brand was actually worth a high 8-digit sum in Red Pocket's eyes.

[zapjb]

That high 8-digit figure has got to be a mistake. How long was FP around 2yrs?

[comintel]

See https://bestmvno.com/freedompop/free...pocket-mobile/ for some calculations around the number of subscribers versus the cost.

"when TPO Mobile was sold off last year to Ting, TPO Mobile's subscriber base was acquired at a cost of $75/subscriber. "
....
"1 million customers at a value of $75/subscriber would certainly be in line with the Reuters source that identified the value of the transaction between FreedomPop and Red Pocket Mobile as in the "high eight figures." BestMVNO estimates that FreedomPop was sold to Red Pocket Mobile at a valuation of $37.50 - $75 per subscriber."

However, I hope Red Pocket (and Ting) realize how many inactive accounts there are on FP. I myself have at least 6 or 7 accounts.

[Boz1]

That high 8-digit figure has got to be a mistake. How long was FP around 2yrs?

8 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomPop

[high technology]

The Best MVNO article linked above also says Ting will pay up to $24/subscriber for the CDMA customers and speculates that it may have to do with the number of paid vs. free subscribers, and perhaps based on the Ting conversion rate of those (free) subscribers.

That seems to be a more appropriate valuation to me -- $24 for someone paying $50/year or so in fees, and certainly less than that for the free subscribers.

[SoNic67]

Those numbers are ridiculous. I have four SIM from FP, and three are inactive, but they won't take the off the account. All of them were of free accounts.
So I have brought them zero income on the last two years but they will be "value" those SIM's at $24-75? Each?
Man, anyone can be a CEO and make bad decisions like this...

[RFK]

Unreal Mobile customers will be also migrated to Ting:

https://www.prepaidphonenews.com/201...reedompop.html

The document reveals that Ting purchased the CDMA (Sprint) customers of FreedomPop last May 31. The company also purchased CDMA customers from Unreal Mobile, which is another brand owned by STS Media.

[agalvan]

Unreal Mobile customers will be also migrated to Ting:

https://www.prepaidphonenews.com/201...reedompop.html

I wonder where they got the Unreal info since their source posted is the same article as what is posted here.

If so, it would also make sense that RP has the Unreal GSM customers. I doubt STS wants to keep them.

[e.mote]

>I wonder where they got the Unreal info

Ting's 8K: "Tucows...reached an agreement with STS Media Inc...an MVNO operator doing business as Freedom Pop and Unreal Mobile brands, to acquire approximately 150,000 mobile subscribers currently on the Sprint network for a purchase price of up to $3.6 million.

The above is a bit ambiguous, since it isn't explicit in saying that Unreal users are included, but it is implicit. Supporting that is a later mention of 100K free accts (from above 150K), which implies 50K paid accts. It's unlikely that FreedomPop Sprint userbase alone would have a 1:3 paid-to-free ratio.

Similarly, the Reuters piece said Red Pocket is buying FreedomPop's brand, not FP's userbase, so what will happen to FP's non-Sprint accts isn't clear. Whatever the outcome, it's a safe bet that the AT&T SIM freebies will be dead. Owners of FP's prepaid plans (like the $50/yr plan) should be concerned.

Re: Where FP got the money to make a bid for Boost (~$3 billion) - Per the Reuters piece, FP is partnering with others, incl private equity. But FP have made many claims before that never panned out, so I don't pay much attention to this one.

What's abundantly clear is that the FP freemium experiment is dead. We know that it's been on life-support for some time, but this is an official declaration.

Notes:

. Ting paid $3.6 mil for 150K accts, of which 100K are free accts, then cost of acquisition is about $24/acct on average. Or more likely, $60/paid acct and $6/free acct, or somewhere in between.

. Compare this to Ting's acquisition of RingPlus' userbase: Per Ting's 2017 Q1 10Q, Ting acquired 18.5K accts from RingPlus. Ting didn't pay R+ for the accts, but it did pay $35 credit per migrated acct.

. Per Ting's latest (Q1-2019) 10Q Q&A:

https://tucows.com/wp-content/upload...Transcript.pdf

"There were also a variety of questions about our plans to address the lack of growth on TingMobile. Investors know that we have been able to find customers from exiting MVNOs with some regularity over the last few years. These have helped us post margin gains every year since 2012, even as organic growth has become tougher. Thankfully, the same conditions that have made growth tougher for us seem to be nudging less successful MVNOs toward exits. You have heard me say that there is more we can do to improve the business on the carrier side. So I am confident we have levers to deliver growth yet again, in 2019. Meanwhile, we continue to explore and experiment with scalable, sustainable acquisition strategies and tactics, that we will share more as we progress.

"Investors have also asked about our intentions to drop our mobile pricing. We note that we have a much greater challenge with awareness than we have with conversion or satisfaction. Indeed, our margins have grown over time with reduced carrier costs, and we are considering investing in customer growth. Lower rates help convert prospects that are aware of the service, but do little to drive awareness, which is still our greatest challenge. Also, lowering rates means paying a significant price on existing customers that are still quite satisfied and still churning at a relatively low rate. Spending that margin on awareness building, and targeted conversion tactics such as trial offers, targeted save tactics, or acquisition offers to other MVNOs, may end up giving us greater returns on our investments."