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  "documentTitle": "American Tower (AMT)",
  "authorId": "51_Muddy_Waters",
  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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  "presentationDate": "2013-08-01 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "Contains a direct quote from management regarding tower demand and a rebuttal regarding REIT accounting practices.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "terminate many of the leases in the next one to two years. Our model previously was forecasting an IRR of 4% on the E-Plus transaction. That IRR could be quite optimistic in light of this transaction.",
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      "text": "One of the points we raised in our initial report is that AMT's means of calculating AFFO is misleading. While AMT has not responded to that issue, an analyst raised it on the call. Management's response was that its method of calculating AFFO represents the recurring cash flow of its business. We disagree, and reiterate that its AFFO calculation methodology is inappropriate and misleading – specifically because it overstates the recurring cash flow of the business. As we discuss in Appendix A.6 of our initial report, we conservatively calculate that if making adjustments to show a truer picture of AMT's recurring cash flow, its 2013 AFFO would be approximately $340 million lower than the number it will eventually report.",
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      "text": "In our initial report, we predicted that macro towers will soon be the most expensive option of last resort for carriers; and, that tower revenue growth in the US is at or near peak because new and existing technologies (particularly Wi-Fi) will handle much of the future growth in wireless data, and at a much lower cost. We pointed out that finding alternatives to macro towers is an imperative for carriers because their margins have greatly compressed in recent years due to the costs of providing wireless data via macro towers. Management offered the following counterargument, which we are still trying to understand:",
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      "kind": "quote",
      "text": "I think we view [additional demand for towers] in that it all flows from subscriber demand and the population for paying more for advanced mobile services and we see that happening everywhere around the world...",
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      "kind": "title",
      "text": "Money Supply Does Not Protect the Tower Model",
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      "text": "AMT's AFFO – Still Without Justification",
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