Clearwire’s board of directors endorsed Dish Network’s bid to acquire a stake in the company, thumbing its nose at current majority stake holder Sprint Nextel, which is also trying to acquire full control of the beleaguered mobile broadband provider.
A special committee set up by Clearwire’s board to contemplate the competing offers by Sprint Nextel and Dish voted in favor of the Dish bid and postponed the shareholder vote on the matter from June 13 to June 24. That vote has already been postponed following Dish Network’s last minute higher per-share bid for Clearwire late last month.
The special committee found that the “Dish offer is in the best interest of Class A stockholders.”
Dish Network’s current bid is for $4.40 per share to acquire a minimum of a 25% stake in Clearwire, which was $1 per share more than the upgraded offer provided by Sprint Nextel on May 21. Sprint Nextel and Dish have been in a war of words over the superiority of their bids ever since.
Dish Network also announced it was extending the expiration period to acquire shares in Clearwire from June 28 to July 2.
Sprint Nextel reacted to the news by holding firm on its commitment to enact its governance rights.
“Sprint is evaluating today’s statement from Clearwire’s board and will review any corresponding filings before determining its next steps,” the carrier noted in a statement. “Sprint continues to have every intention of enforcing its governance rights. All commercial agreements, including network and customer agreements, will be honored and enforced as it regards our ongoing relationship with Clearwire.”
The fight over Clearwire is playing the undercard over Dish Network’s attempt to outbid Japan’s Softbank for control of Sprint Nextel. That brawl was updated this week when Softbank increased its planned acquisition by 35 cents per share, but more importantly increased the cash portion of that price by $4.5 billion to $16.64 billion. In return, Softbank is now looking to acquire a 78% stake in Sprint Nextel for $21.6 billion compared with the original offer of $20.1 billion for 70%.
The Softbank offer came just days before Sprint Nextel shareholders were set to vote on whether to take the Softbank proposal or a $25.5 billion offer from Dish for a 68% stake in Sprint Nextel. The increased bid from Softbank resulted in Sprint Nextel postponing the shareholder vote until June 25.
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