Dish Network targets Clearwire
January 9, 2013
Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network is bidding to buy telco Clearwire. It seems that Dish, in offering $2.2 billion for all of Clearwire’s shares (at $3.30 a share), has beaten existing Clearwire shareholder Sprint Nextel in the race to acquire the telco business.
Sprint Nextel takes a different view and said it had no intention of waiving any of its rights, and with a bid already on the table (at $2.97) and owning 50.8 per cent of Clearwire, it has certain advantages. Other Clearwire shareholders include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Google and Intel.
Dish, in a statement, confirmed that it has formally approached Clearwire Corporation with respect to a potential strategic transaction on terms as generally outlined in the Clearwire release, including an offer to purchase all of the Clearwire common shares at $3.30. “We look forward to working with Clearwire’s Special Committee as it evaluates our proposal,” said Tom Cullen, DISH EVP/ Corporate Development.
Clearwire is the 5th largest wireless provider in the US with around 11 million subscribers, most of them signed up via Sprint. Clearwire has other assets in Spain and Belgium.