Dish Network has responded to Sprint’s increased bid for Clearwire, by increasing its own bid well past the $3.40/share to $4.40/share in an obvious attempt to sway the special counsel set up to investigate both offers. The 30% increase now values the beleaguered mobile broadband provider at $6.5 billion ahead of the vote scheduled for Sprint’s increased offer tendered earlier this week, on Friday.
Dish CEO Charlie Ergen is still actively making statements in an attempt to convince shareholders and board members for both companies that its deal is the better offer compared to SoftBank, even though Dish Network would still have to leverage multiple loans in order to complete the purchase, compared to SoftBank’s cash and stock deal, even going as far as using jingoistic language against SoftBank in an attempt to sour the deal.
“The Clearwire spectrum portfolio has always been a key component to implementing our wireless plans of delivering a superior product and service offering to customers”
Currently, Sprint and SoftBank have recently received approval from the United States Committee on Foreign Investment regarding the majority stake purchase, with SoftBank also appointing a Sprint board executive to a new security position with a new four-person security board in order to clear the last hurdles for the purchase along with implementing a list of requirements such as the U.S. government having veto power over Sprint’s telecommunication equipment purchases, and Sprint being required to remove all Chinese-made equipment from Clearwire’s network infrastructure by 2016.
For its part, Clearwire released the following statement and did not immediately reschedule the shareholder vote on the Sprint deal:
“The Special Committee of Clearwire’s board of directors will review it to determine the best course of action for the company and its stockholders. The Special Committee has not made any determination to change its recommendation of the current Sprint transaction.”
