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Dish tops Softbank bid for Sprint
2013-04-15 13:04:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) Pay-TV provider Dish Network has launched a rival takeover offer for mobile operator Sprint Nextel, beating Japanese operator Softbank's bid agreed late last year. Dish is offering a total USD 25.5 billion for Sprint, versus around USD 20 billion under Softbank's offer. Based on Dish's closing share price the day before the offer was announced, the bid is worth USD 7.00 share, including USD 4.76 cash and 0.05953 shares in Dish for each Sprint share. Dish said its cash offer is worth 18 percent more than Softbank's bid, and the equity portion also gives Sprint shareholders a higher stake in the combined company, at 32 percent versus 30 percent under Softbank's proposal. Dish earlier launched a rival offer for Clearwire, the Wimax operator controlled by Sprint. As part of the proposed takeover by Softbank, Sprint is seeking to buy out the remaining shares in Clearwire, giving it access to a wide range of spectrum to expand its LTE services. Dish has been seeking to enter the mobile market for some time and already has some of its own spectrum, but its various attempts to acquire operators such as T-Mobile USA or MetroPCS have been rebuffed.
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Category:Telecommunications