Sprint/Clearwire Acquisition Discussion (Formerly: Dish offer to acquire Clearwire for $4.40 per share in cash.)

[bucdenny]

FYI.. http://www.4-traders.com/DISH-NETWORK-CORP-4870/news/DISH-Network-Corp-DISH-Network-Announces-Tender-Offer-in-Letter-to-Clearwire-Board-of-Directors-16915476/

 

What is up with this.  This is bad for Sprint which Clearwire is set to vote this Friday.

[IamMrFamous07]

This is getting ridiculous. Even if dish gets Clearwire sprint will still own more than 50% of Clearwire

[supert0nes]

Thanks for the lolz, you may also want to post this in the dish/sprint thread or find the old dish/clearwire thread.

[JimBob]

Damn. I really wish I held onto the CLWR shares I previously bought for $0.87

[S4GRU]

I'm not surprised.  They would be happy to over pay even what Crest wants for Clearwire.  This is all a game for Charlie Ergen.

 

Robert

[IamMrFamous07]

Honestly I really don't care anymore how this ends as long as the end result is better than what we currently have I'm fine.

 

I'm still pulling for Clear/SoftBank/ and sprint

[bucdenny]

I'm not surprised.  They would be happy to over pay even what Crest wants for Clearwire.  This is all a game for Charlie Ergen.

 

Robert

 

Can the deal be done even with all the restrictions?  Will Clearwire vote this Friday?

[S4GRU]

Can the deal be done even with all the restrictions?  Will Clearwire vote this Friday?

 

If the minority Clearwire shareholders vote at least 50% for the Sprint deal, then it will be approved.  I have no idea if Dish's latest offer will upset the apple cart.

 

Robert

[utiz4321]

I really loath dish. They know their offer will not be accepted by sprint unless they offer to wildly over pay. This offer of 4.40 is just to make sure sprint doesn't succeed in taking full control of clear. Which is an odd manuver if they expect their bid for sprint to go through. If dish was confident (or making a real play) of their sprint offer wouldn't they want sprint to pick clear up as cheap as posible? If their sprint bid goes through and the minority clear investors shoot down sprint's offer then the new dish/sprint won't have the capital to take control of clear and dish loses out. The only thing that makes sense is dish doesn't want sprint (or doesnt think that they will be able to get sprint) or clear but wants keep sprint from taking full control of 2.6 forcing sprint to dump money into clear or sell some 2.6 and thus be open to a partnership with dish. Or maybe they believe that SoftBank will back out if sprint can't close clear or perhaps they would be fine with either. Either way I loath dish, they are singal handedly messing up the chance for sprint to be competitive company and solidifying our duopoly.

[derrph]

This is getting ooc now. Dish is never this desperate but I guess they are. I do not care too much anymore about how the whole sprint/clear/softbank/dish thing plays out. Its just too much going on lol.

[JimBob]

I care.

[IamMrFamous07]

Clearwire's stock is at 4.23 a share now (after hours). Might have to make the switch to tmobile once my contract ends

[jegillis]

Dish has removed all conditions that would require Sprint approval and unless Sprint ups its bid than Clearwire will be jointly owned by Sprint/Dish.

 

This is a Tender offer so only those that want to sell to Dish have to with the offer contingent on getting as little as 12.5% ownership of the company.

 

Hopefully this means that Dish backs out of its offer for Sprint 

[IamMrFamous07]

I'm ok if Clearwire is controlled by Dish/SoftBank(Sprint) maybe all 3 can work some magic on that spectrum. All I want is for sprint to be owned by SoftBank haha

[MacPCS]

Charlie Ergen really must hate SoftBank. A lot.

[PythonFanPA]

I'd be more inclined to say Charlie's ego can't accept not getting his way.  At all.

[utiz4321]

Dish has removed all conditions that would require Sprint approval and unless Sprint ups its bid than Clearwire will be jointly owned by Sprint/Dish.

 

This is a Tender offer so only those that want to sell to Dish have to with the offer contingent on getting as little as 12.5% ownership of the company.

 

Hopefully this means that Dish backs out of its offer for Sprint

If that is true that makes even less sense (and I don't doubt that it is true, I just haven't read that yet) since dish would gain clear if their sprint bid is accepted at a lower price if clear was to accept sprint's bid. If dish fails in it's sprint bid all they end up with is a minority position in a company that has a good chance of going bankrupt and seeing sprint trying to pick up spectrum in a post bankrupt fire sell. I am seriously have trouble with just the logic of this move.

[ryry4ya]

Can't we all just LTE along?

 

Sent from S4GRU Mobile

 

 

[ericdabbs]

Charlie Ergen really must hate SoftBank. A lot.

 

 

I think this all started when Dish and Charlie learned that Sprint was up for sale.  I think prior to the Softbank deal, no one knew that Sprint was up for sale.  Since Charlie is so desperate to enter the mobile video business, he understands he needs spectrum and a wireless carrier that can build out a LTE network that can deploy their S-band spectrum. He understood that the cell phone service is where most of the mobile video traffic is coming from and that most people have a cell phone its a perfect market to enter in.  Of course Charlie Ergen hates Softbank a lot because he is competing against them for a major wireless carrier that can help deploy his vision.

[scubajwd]

All very puzzling indeed; perhaps Dish thinks it has a better chance getting Spectrum if Clear IS forced into bankruptcy and as a bonus delays if not derails the Sprint rollout of NV; all that makes sense to me is that DISH seems to be very worried that Sprint will succeed with NV thus in the future making Dish and its vision of the future irrelevant; someone above used the term "desperate";that's what this is..

[JimBob]

Can't we all just LTE along?

How.

[jegillis]

If that is true that makes even less sense (and I don't doubt that it is true, I just haven't read that yet) since dish would gain clear if their sprint bid is accepted at a lower price if clear was to accept sprint's bid. If dish fails in it's sprint bid all they end up with is a minority position in a company that has a good chance of going bankrupt and seeing sprint trying to pick up spectrum in a post bankrupt fire sell. I am seriously have trouble with just the logic of this move.

This makes sense if Dish is doubting it's chances of obtaining Sprint (likely). The logic for Dish is that it desperately needs a wireless infrastructure. It has only two reasonable choices Sprint or Clearwire. The purchase of Clearwire gives Dish a spot at the bargaining table and cell towers for at most 3 Billion. I'm sure the first choice would be an agreement with Sprint similar to lightsquared. However Sprint is in a much better position now with no incentive for a hosting agreement for what would essentially be another competitor. 

[jegillis]

All very puzzling indeed; perhaps Dish thinks it has a better chance getting Spectrum if Clear IS forced into bankruptcy and as a bonus delays if not derails the Sprint rollout of NV; all that makes sense to me is that DISH seems to be very worried that Sprint will succeed with NV thus in the future making Dish and its vision of the future irrelevant; someone above used the term "desperate";that's what this is..

Clearwire is not going bankrupt, its just NOT happening. Sprint has way to much to lose. 

[xcharles718]

How.

If Sprint/Softbank & Charlie can come to reasonable terms on either a Lightsquared-like agreement or an agreement for Dish to purchase EBS and current infrastructure, everyone can end up (somewhat) happy.

 

But then again, everyone has their egos  ...

[ChadBroChillz]

I think this all started when Dish and Charlie learned that Sprint was up for sale.  I think prior to the Softbank deal, no one knew that Sprint was up for sale.  Since Charlie is so desperate to enter the mobile video business, he understands he needs spectrum and a wireless carrier that can build out a LTE network that can deploy their S-band spectrum. He understood that the cell phone service is where most of the mobile video traffic is coming from and that most people have a cell phone its a perfect market to enter in.  Of course Charlie Ergen hates Softbank a lot because he is competing against them for a major wireless carrier that can help deploy his vision.

 

I do not believe that to be true. Sprint was shopping itself around. I remember reading that KDDI was possibly offer the company prior to Softbank, however, they passed on the deal. Sprint had talked to 4 other companies, and I believe Dish was one of them. 

 

http://japandailypress.com/softbank-rival-kddi-passed-on-offer-to-buy-sprint-first-1716440

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-02-04/business/sns-rt-us-sprint-proxybre91402j-20130204_1_japan-s-softbank-corp-sprint-executive-sprint-nextel-corp