Dish Outbids Sprint For Clearwire Again — This Time By A Buck A Share
While its satcaster rival goes after Hulu, Dish on Wednesday upped the ante in its bid for a mobile-broadband operator. The Wall Street Journal reports that the No. 2 satellite TV company offered to acquire Clearwire for $4.40 a share in cash, a nearly 30% premium over Sprint Nextel’s $3.40 offer last week. Dish’s bid values its target at about $6.3 billion. It’s the second time Dish outbid Sprint for the company: Weeks after the wireless giant offered $2.97 a share for Clearwire in December, the satco came back at $3.30. “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,” said Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen in a statement.Clearwire said Wednesday that the special committee of its board had received Dish’s offer and “will review it to determine the best course of action for the company and its stockholders. Dish said its offer is for all stockholders, but it’s also willing to buy out only minority stockholders so long as it can acquire at least 25% of Clearwire’s voting stock. Dish also wants to designate at least three seats on Clearwire’s board and additional seats if it acquires a bigger stake. Clearwire shares jumped 19% to $4.15 in after-hours trading.
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