Nary a day after DISH Chairman Charlie Ergen raised DISH’s bid for Clearwire by $1.10 per share to $4.40 share–higher than Sprint Nextel’s recently revised bid of $3.40 on 5/21—the Clearwire board postponed its 5/31 stockholder vote. Tom Cullen, DISH EVP of Corporate Development immediately issued this statement:
“We are pleased that the Clearwire Board of Directors has decided to delay the stockholder vote to thoughtfully consider the merits of our proposal. We are confident that our offer is superior to the proposed Sprint merger as it offers substantially greater value to Clearwire and its minority stockholders and a clearer path to value realization for all parties. Importantly, it also provides a meaningful alternative to the significant group of Clearwire minority stockholders that remains opposed to the Sprint merger. Our offer is not subject to any financing contingency.”
Clearwire sits on 40 megahertz of prime wireless broadband spectrum. Sprint is currently the majority owner of Clearwire. Meanwhile, DISH also continues its battle with Japan’s SoftBank for ownership of SprintNextel: SoftBank also wants Clearwire. It’s a real chess game. If Sprint ends up getting Clearwire, it could still ultimately end up in DISH’s portfolio—or SoftBank’s.
RBR-TVBR observation: That’s all well and good, but it’s also likely the vote postponement was done to give Sprint a chance to up its own bid. Remember, Sprint is already the majority owner of Clearwire.
