As everyone must have read, Q Link Wireless has announced its interest in purchasing Boost Mobile, a prepaid wireless phone company that is owned by Sprint. Both Sprint and T-Mobile are planning on merging and if they do, then Sprint would have to sell off Boost Mobile. Q Link Wireless is interested in purchasing Boost Mobile along with other companies but it believes that it has a better chance due to its reputation.
Being the 3rd largest provider of the free government program called Lifeline Service, Q Link Wireless is in a good position to bid for Boost with its private equity backing and can pay anywhere between $1.8 B to $3 B as intended by Chief Executive and founder Issa Asad. Q Link Wireless also offers prepaid wireless service to non Lifeline customers.
Boost is a good fit for Q Link as believed by Issa Asad Q Link Wireless. It is the third largest Lifeline operator and Sprint’s largest MVNO customer which makes it an ideal choice.
The price of the deal depends on the quality of Boost’s customers, the rate of customer cancellations and the level of churn, the type of phone plans offered and the devices being used. None of these have been disclosed so far. However, this month, Cowen analysts had made an estimate that Boost has over 7 million to 8 million customers. A transaction can be valued anywhere at around $4.5 B if the wireless spectrum, facilities and the airwaves that carry data are included in the deal.
Issa Asad has started the company only in 2011 and Q Link now serves over 2 million customers in 30 states. A great thing about the company is that it uses unique marketing that is all online and no agents are used. Assad has described that 67% of the customers are located in less populated regions throughout the United States.
The Q Link Wireless founder started it all out with his mission to go where no other competitors were and by that Issa meant the less populated regions. With the company’s track record, it could do well with Boost. Furthermore, be believes that Q Link can compete with Metro PCS of T-Mobile which is also Boost’s biggest competitor.
Asad is a man with a vision and he has plans for continuing the growth of the business. About 400 employees work at Q Link and the company is debt-free.
