You probably have heard Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is stepping down and being replaced by the CEO of a 10.6 billion dollar global wireless distribution and services company called Brightstar. Its no coincidence that as of October of last year Brightstar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint majority owner Softbank.
It's also no coincidence that piggy-backed with the CEO change, Sprint / Softbank announced they no longer are interested in pursuing a Sprint / TMobile merger. In related news T Mobile decided to reject a bid from French Telecom to acquire the company. In the immortal words of George Costanza "You're giving me the 'It's not you, it's me?' I invented that!!"
What does this mean for KC? First and foremost I think a merged TMobile / Sprint has the potential to adversly effect the local job market so the break-up is a good thing for KC. If history is any indication, we know how the Sprint / Nextel merger worked out for us.
Beyond that I think a merged company would look to consolidate operations which gives Sprint HQ a 50/50 chance of moving to Bellevue, WA. Given telecom is a technology driven industry, and the perception that the West Coast is much more "tech heavy", I'm happy the merger is off.
And if "As the Sprint World Turns" isn't enough for you, Cerner just announced a 1.3 Billion dollar CASH acquisition of Siemans Healthcare Systems. Forbes has a great article on the benefits of the acquisition and as you read you'll know the benefits to the KC market. Cerner still plans on adding 16,000 jobs in the coming years outside this partnership and I suspect this partnership is part of the reason those jobs are coming to our community.
I'm optimistic for another reason - demand for our services is as high (if not higher) than the peak days in 2001 & 2007. We currently have a dozen openings for development resources on all platforms and roles from basic team members to highly placed technical strategists. I've never seen competition for hands-on technical people this fierce.
We also are seeing plenty of activity in SDLC related roles: Business Analysts, Quality Testers, and Project / Product Managers. In short, if you're in the software development world and considering a move you will find plenty of firms interested in speaking with you. Including me. :)
