Member Info for Aus3009

Fleccy - again you argue both sides of the coin.

One post talk talk have little margin, the next post you lament them not building a network

Like I said you view them as a telecoms company whereas I see them more like a shop

& talking about lack of OFCOM and talk talk being wiped out, again falls into the realms of personal fantasy and prejudice at the expense of reality.

Continue your analysis into the areas you don’t like Fleccy - they don’t need to find £20bln for fixed line or £6bln for mobile upgrades. No 3,4,5 G auctions etc etc etc

I’d argue if you do the same calculations, wholesale line rental leave BT with very little margin, but that doesn’t fit the narrative. 106,000 staff etc etc etc

Yep & the facts are, there’s an offer been made

Fleccy - that’s because you see talk talk as a telecoms company. I see it as a shop. I don’t know what’s not to like, 4 million customers, a couple of staff sitting in a room some where selling and answering calls, with odd bit of planning and buying etc

Well. One of us worked out Talk Talk offer was coming.......

NDN - okay.

Hey NDN nope that’s only part of what I’m saying. What I’m saying or wondering is why are BT pushing ahead with lots of large corporate style expensive buildings at a time where (I read) lots of very large company’s are choosing to keep staff (who can) work from or based from home after realising the cost saving opportunities. I would have thought those same savings could be achieved by BT. I.e rather than going to corporate style premises, post Covid they could go straight to home working, missing out that rationalisation planned pre covid. Where possible. I am surmising, it’s could be one of two reasons. 1. Being a strategy to force redundancy on staff because their normal place of work is closing (working from home would work against that strategy) or 2. Senior managers are too slow to take advantage or adapt to the changes / opportunities Covid might present to the business. I was asking if anyone could think of other answers? Opinions.

I know for instance where friends are in company’s who are moth balling their large buildings & instead just providing small work place options for staff who need access to meeting rooms etc

NDN “ Also where did, “ corporate sized ” come from and what exactly dose that mean, houses 100 people or 1000000 people ???”

I mean these

http://www.bristol-business.net/bt-agrees-pre-let-on-11-storey-office-tower-more-than-a-year-ahead-of-completition/

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/uk-world/bt-to-move-to-new-aldgate-site-after-210m-sale-of-st-pauls-hq-38334074.html

https://newsroom.bt.com/three-snowhill-chosen-as-new-home-for-bt-in-birmingham/

Massive corporate head quarter sized buildings

Fleccy - 30 sites, so far 8 announced, mainly new, state of the art corporate sized

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/wires/pa/article-7107073/BT-reduce-offices-300-30-major-consolidation-plan.html

NDN - I’m saying it looks like Bt are using site closures to accelerate staff reductions.

Training and other activities are completely different as is fixing street cabinets or anything else that needs a hands on

Other companies manage their training etc without needing to have training centres, which I think are not subject to closure.

I think the world of work & businesses have been managing very well this year by having staff working from home, most of which are assessing their need to have big expensive corporate buildings. That’s not to say they won’t have smaller facilities available

What I’m saying is Bt are doing the opposite..... 30 massive “state of art” modern corporate head quarter type sites in centralised, city locations.....? Really? Sounds like old school to me & although undecided, I think a lot of big companies are thinking the same.

Bt has had their staff working from home for months now. That argument has already run its course.

From what I can see their office strategy looks a bit pre-covid to me & im wondering why they are continuing with it & missing an opportunity to cut operational costs like pretty much every other company is doing

Fleccy - the point is they are investing in 30 huge state of the art, city centre office centres. At a time when massive, expensive corporate style buildings are probably the opposite direction every other business is travelling in. It’s the opposite to moving more and more staff into working from home (at the employees cost)

So I would hazard a guess NOC teams are less than 1% of the work force. What about the other 99% of job roles, sure some will need an office, but does that justify a huge investment and office strategy when people can work from home?.....

NDN - by ambition I mean look at BT’s tv offering? Bt sport I think have done a good job, ambition would have them doing more content deals like they have with amc maybe doing a deal to use Apple TV (like Vodafone) making content etc etc, buying up some smaller operators, branding things like hive etc etc etc

Fleccy - & the market cap confirms your thinking? ...... thought not.

“Why is BT valuation so low”

I personally don’t go in for conspiracy theories or dark rooms full of market makers, little green men, flat earths etc etc

I think the valuation we are seeing is ultimately down to ambition or lack of. We saw better share price valuations when BT started to show some, TV, Sport & EE all showed ambition. Markets can forgive dept and other crimes if they see ambition.

Instead BT is showing the complete opposite whilst companies like Virgin are taking the risks for rewards investors like to see

To me, sometimes it feels like Bt is stuck in the mud, unable to properly capitalise on the ambition shown by Gareth & unable to leverage their income into more ambitious plans. Without the willingness to show ambition, it looks to some like BT might be slowly bleeding out.

Just my view, would like to see BT showing some ambition.

Reading between the lines BT are using their office strategy to lower staff numbers. Outwardly it looks like they had a cunning plan last year, but are unable to adapt to the new circumstances where people can work from home. Seems strange Pursuing expensive office plans when there’s an opportunity to not have offices ?

To me anyway

Fleccy - “ Many of those places are uneconomical for Altnet Fibre providers, like much of the country. All in, it adds up to a lot of premises where Openreach/BT will have no infrastructure competition.”

I lose count how many time you shout me down about virgin being an upstart.

Again your analysis raises eyebrows. Not only have Virgin emerged as a serious disruptor (I would say more than that) but here you are crowing about “uneconomical” areas being a place where BT can retreat to. I think the point is “uneconomical” means “uneconomical”. Companies like VM will concentrate on where customers are concentrated the most, would be silly to concentrate on the uneconomic areas.....

Fleccy - again your analysis is characteristically truth & observable fact blind.

Not a long response from me, but of course any of the usual economic damages caused by peaks and troughs will be multiplied by Brexit. Then, on top of that is the unknown damage to the country caused by needing to be governed by dishonest, incompetent charlatans “to get Brexit done”. It’s pretty obvious incompetence and Brexit are linked

Heavy - I’m afraid your good news is not going well. Isn’t it an American Bank removing £1.2 trillion of assets from the U.K? (Let’s not mention the blow to car manufacturers this week)

Fleccy - historically talk talk have managed to create more real interest that Bt

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.techradar.com/uk/amp/news/talktalk-rejected-billion-pound-takeover-offer-in-2019

Pure speculation on my part. Based on previous reports & now SP bucking the telecoms trend. Does anyone else think they’ve done a deal for a buyout?