Since Dish’s surprise competing bid for Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) emerged, just what Softbank’s response would be was unclear. Today, following their earnings call, Softbank made it clear they don’t feel the need to raise their bid to fend off Dish and are still looking for a July 1 close.
The $20.1B deal is tentatively due to be voted on by Sprint shareholders in just over six weeks, which is simultaneously both quite close and quite far away. There is plenty of time for a shareholder revolt to emerge a la MetroPCS earlier this month. But not an awful lot of time for Dish to persuade Sprint’s board of directors to switch gears at the last minute and start jumping through a whole new set of hurdles for a different deal.
Earlier this week, Softbank did grant Sprint a waiver allowing them to ask Dish for more details on their apparently higher $25.5B counteroffer. Meanwhile, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini offered his support for Softbank’s bid, although it’s not at all clear to me what relevance that has. Does Intel have a piece of Sprint?
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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Wireless
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Well he is trying to compete with DISH, but he may not have mentioned that in his statement of support.
http://www.benzinga.com/news/13/02/3327266/intel-hired-apple-netflix-and-google-employees-to-build-new-tv-service
Intel has a piece of Clearwire.
Sprint is buying the 48% of Clearwire they don’t own. SoftBank would be providing Sprint with funding to do that purchase.