Large number of Clearwire minority shareholders on-board with the deal
Sprint announced today that it has entered an agreement to buy the half of Clearwire that it does not already own for $5 per share, beating Dish's current offer by $0.60 per share. The revised deal values Clearwire at $14 billion, represents a 47-percent increase over Sprint's previous offer of $3.40 per share and a 285-percent premium over Clearwire's stock price the day before Sprint and SoftBank confirmed acquisition talks in October 2012. The new offer is a win all-around for stockholders of Clearwire looking to get top dollar on their shares, a large number of which have now voiced their support.
Sprint claims that several large investors totaling 9-percent of Clearwire's voting shares have committed to the new offer, as have Comcast, Intel and Bright House Networks (which hold another 13-percent). The aforementioned groups together with Clearwire's directors and officers represent 45-percent of the company's voting shares not controlled by Sprint, and have agreed to vote for the deal. Combine those votes with the other shareholders who have previously voiced approval for the Sprint-SoftBank acquisition and Sprint expects to get a majority of Clearwire shareholders to approve its deal in the end.
The higher offer comes with some strings attached, however. A new term of the deal will have Clearwire pay a $115 million breakup fee, equal to about 3-percent of the minority stake, to Sprint if the deal is not finalized. Additionally, under the circumstances that the deal is not finalized Clearwire is required to hold its shareholder meeting quickly as possible and waive the standstill provision of its Equityholders Agreement (EHA) between the companies.
If it isn't clear (dang, the pun writes itself) at this point , Sprint is ready to drop a bucket of cash on Clearwire and get this deal finalized so that it can move onto receiving a large strategic investment from SoftBank. It seems all but certain that a majority of the minority shareholders are on-board with the deal -- all that's left at this point are the formalities assuming we don't see another interjection by Dish.
Reader comments
Sprint bumps offer for Clearwire to $5 per share, valuing the company at $14 billion
It's all coming together! Bring on the TriBand phones!
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good, lets get this done with
Next up, Softbank!
Sprint has really taken it to Dish this week.
As someone said in another thread, Dish needs to exchange spectrum for access and go that route.
As much as I think t-mo is kinda crappy, I dont think that they deserve to get trashed either.
Isn't the standstill agreement still in play... How can they make an offer
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That's a condition of the amended offer. Clearwire has agreed to waive the standstill provision of the equity holders agreement.
Good news indeed! While AT&T and Verizon execs scratch their ass and roll in money, they are unaware that in the near future they are about to get knocked down a notch. With Clearwires spectrum and Network Vision 2.0 Sprint will be the fastest 4G network boasting speeds far exceeding Verizon AWS. Go Sprint!
Hopefully they can actually get places covered with LTE and improve 3G. I'm in Chicago with great LTE but not everywhere and improved 3G in still crap .20 down at best... If not T-Mobile here I come in November.
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I live in Michigan and I average 25Mbps download on Sprint 4G, which is not 4G LTE yet. I had AT&T and I had 12 Mbps downloading on their 4G LTE.
I gotta pay my Sprint bill.
From the DARK AC App!
I don't really care how much they are worth, Sprint still sucks.
go away troll
+1
Saw that coming.
Dish, go home and stop bidding. You're drunk.
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+1
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Way to go Sprint. Was hoping this would happen.
In other words: "Suck it Dish!"
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Hey I didnt know that Google owns a piece of Clearwire
At this point don't care who buys Sprint.. As a customer.. Don't think is fair for anybody to go on roaming every time I get into a big building.. We are in 2013 and Sprint is the third largest, not a starter company.. We need Sprint to get better at any price..
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I feel the same way, i'm sick of living and working in a big city and don't have great coverage. I would even pay another extra $10 a month if they could match other carriers coverage.
Sprint must invest the money necessary to dramatically improve their coverage nationwide. Speed isn't important when you get weak or no signal.