Dish Launches Spoiler Takeover Bid for Clearwire

Published on: 9th Jan 2013

­USA based Dish Network has launched a spoiler takeover bid for the WiMAX-to-LTE network, Clearwire, which had recently agreed to be bought by Sprint Nextel.

Clearwire warned though that the Dish proposals are complex, and may not even be possible under the terms of Clearwire's current legal and contractual obligations.

Dish had, prior to the announcement of the Sprint agreement, provided Clearwire with a preliminary indication of interest solely with respect to acquiring certain of Clearwire's spectrum assets, and entering into a commercial agreement. Although Clearwire worked with Dish prior to the execution of the Sprint agreement to improve the overall terms of that proposal, the Clearwire Board determined that the Sprint transaction was, for a number of reasons, a more-attractive alternative for Clearwire's stockholders.

Dish's latest proposal sees it buying about a quarter of Clearwire's radio spectrum assets for US$2.2 billion, and leasing a further chunk of spectrum that Clearwire would retain ownership of.

Clearwire would then build a mobile network that supports Dish Network's own plans to refarm its satellite radio spectrum for a conventional mobile broadband network.

Finally, Dish would offer to buy out the roughtly 50% stake not already owned by Sprint, subject to securing at least a 25% stake in the company. This would theoretically leave Clearwire as a 50:50 joint venture between Spring and Dish.

Clearwire said that it will review the offer, although Sprint has already responded saying that the new offer is inferior to the US$2.2 billion offer it tendered at the end of last year.

 

Tags: [clearwire]  [dish network]  [sprint nextel]  [USA]