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April 23, 2013

Dish Vs. SoftBank: Sprint Forms Special Committee to Review Offer

Sprint has responded to Dish Network’s $25 billion offer by forming a Special Committee to evaluate the proposal. The Special Committee consists of Larry C. Glasscock, James H. Hance, Jr., V. Janet Hill, William R. Nuti, and Rodney O’Neal, with Glasscock serving as chairman and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch acting as its financial advisor. Shearman & Sterling LLP will serve as its legal counsel.

This is an interesting development, since Dish, the nation's third-largest satellite-television company, lacks any revenue in the wireless space and is counter to the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBanks’ $20.1 billion investment offer.

The deal with Sprint would put Dish on par with AT&T and Verizon, who own wireless, TV and Internet services. Not to mention the fact that countering comes with the veiled threat of wireless streaming of data that once was the providence of satellite-based TV, Dish Network’s main revenue. Dish has made similar attempts in the past and made offers to Clearwire and MetroPCS. 

SoftBank believes its offer is superior. "SoftBank believes that the agreed terms of our transaction with Sprint offer Sprint shareholders superior short- and long-term benefits to Dish's highly conditional preliminary proposal," SoftBank said. "The SoftBank-Sprint transaction is in the advanced stages of receiving the necessary approvals, and we expect to consummate the transaction on July 1, 2013.”

This comes as a disrupting force in the previously agreed-upon merger of SoftBank and Sprint. It is a risky move, since it is directly in the path of SoftBank’s goal of being the largest wireless provider in the world. The future is anyone’s guess, but this possibility does bode well for customers of Sprint. If Dish’s offer is deemed superior and goes through, however, then customers of Sprint and Dish can look forward to bundled deals currently enjoyed by AT&T and Verizon customers.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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