Tag Archives: Clearwire

FCC set to approve Softbank’s Sprint and Clearwire deals, says Bloomberg

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It looks as if nine months of hard politicking is coming to an end, now that the FCC has reportedly rubber-stamped the deal to tie up Softbank with Sprint and Clearwire. Bloomberg's cabal of insiders have said that two out of three commissioners have voted to support the transactions, meaning that Dan Hesse and Masayoshi Son should soon start cracking open the champagne and cigars. Now that the pair have charmed shareholders, convinced the Justice Department and bloodied Joseph Clayton's nose, all that's left to do is tell John J Legere that his services are no longer needed.

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Source: Bloomberg

Dish withdraws its offer to buy Clearwire

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Sprint Dish Wire

And with that, Dish is (seemingly) out of the running: following a decision to back away from buying Sprint, the satellite TV giant has also withdrawn its bid for Clearwire. The company is bowing out due to a "change in recommendation" at Clearwire -- in other words, shareholders now prefer Sprint's recently sweetened offer. Between that and Sprint's lawsuit, we're not expecting Dish to make another acquisition attempt, especially when Softbank's acquisition of Sprint (and thus Clearwire) could close in a matter of weeks.

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Via: Bloomberg News (Twitter)

Source: Dish

Sprint boosts Clearwire buyout offer to $5 per share, $14 billion valuation

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We're deep into a bona fide bidding war here -- Sprint and Dish are both battling for an approximately 50-percent stake in Clearwire, and as of today, that former contestant's bid makes it the new front runner. To catch you up, last month Dish offered $4.40 per share for Clearwire, following Sprint's offer of $3.40 per share made way back in December. Now, the carrier has increased its bid to a whopping 5 bucks per share, which values Clearwire at just about $14 billion. (As you can probably imagine, CLWR's trading price has jumped today to match that new target.) This comes just days after Sprint filed a lawsuit to prevent the other two parties from moving forward. Whether or not CLWR's spectrum and other assets make it worth that sum is a different story, but Sprint clearly sees some solid value there.

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Source: Sprint (BusinessWire)

Netflix intros a dedicated ISP speed index page to highlight streaming champions

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Netflix intros a dedicated ISP speed index page to highlight streaming champions

Netflix has long been judging your ISP's streaming quality, but you've had to dig around blog posts and other less accessible pages to get the low-down on just which networks reign supreme. Its new, dedicated ISP Speed Index page is much more straightforward: stop by and you'll always have a quick glimpse of which internet providers are the most Netflix-friendly across key countries, with more detailed breakdowns for individual nations. Not that there's been an upheaval in the pecking order, at least if you're an American. Google Fiber was once again the clear US speed leader in February, while DSL and Clearwire's WiMAX trailed the pack. The site mostly provides a handy point of reference for ISP shopping, even if it suggests that a cross-country (or cross-planet) move might be in order.

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Source: Netflix ISP Speed Index

FreedomPop’s pseudo-free home WiMAX goes live

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FreedomPop brings its payonce WiMAX to home access, hopes you'll pay for more

FreedomPop tempted users with the prospect of free home internet access -- free after buying the hardware, that is -- back in December. If you've been champing at the bit ever since, you'll be glad to know that the more stationary service is at last live. As promised, you'll get 1GB of free data per month after picking up the $89 Hub Burst modem and router combo. That allotment won't be useful for much more than emergency access on the desktop, but customers will have multiple avenues for raising the ceiling, whether it's agreeing to join in promotions or simply paying for more. A starting $10 per month subscription nets a more reasonable 10GB cap, and additional plans boost the peak speed from a pokey 1.5Mbps to 8Mbps at $19 per month. We'd think carefully about leaping in when FreedomPop hopes to switch to LTE this year, but the price is low enough that the early adopter tax will be low.

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Source: FreedomPop

Sprint CEO eyes more spectrum deals after buying Clearwire

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Sprint CEO eyes more spectrum deals after Clearwire

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse isn't so narrowly focused as to think that the proposed Clearwire acqusition represents the end of the road for spectrum. Far from it: he tells Bloomberg Businessweek that the company is investigating future airwave deals involving companies and government auctions. The Clearwire deal mostly bought time, according to Hesse. Naturally, these ambitions are partly contingent on both SoftBank's purchase of Sprint and the absence of any Dish-sized hurdles to the Clearwire pact. As long as the path stays clear, though, we wouldn't assume that Hesse's shopping spree is over.

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Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Dish wants FCC to freeze its review of SoftBank’s Sprint deal

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Dish wants FCC to freeze its review of SoftBank's Sprint deal

If you ran Dish, how would you get extra leverage when fighting Sprint for control of Clearwire? Try to put SoftBank's acquisition of Sprint on ice, that's how. The satellite TV provider has asked the FCC to pause its review process over "unresolved contingencies" with Sprint's proposed buyout of Clearwire. Among the concerns, Dish warns that Sprint might not get full control of Clearwire or its spectrum, skewing the final value of the takeover, and that approval of the SoftBank-Sprint union might give the combined entity an unfair edge. Dish also makes a case for preserving wireless competition, but the company is still fairly conspicuous in its ultimate aims -- it wants a better shot at buying Clearwire, or at least to eke some LTE-friendly spectrum out of Sprint before SoftBank can move in. Just filing a request isn't a guarantee of action, however, and it's likely that Sprint will push back against any attempts to derail what's likely its deal of the decade.

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Via: Bloomberg

Source: FCC (PDF)

Dish Network makes an offer to buy Clearwire, even though Sprint was already buying Clearwire

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Surprise news this afternoon as Clearwire announced it's received an acquisition offer from Dish Network, even though Sprint was already on the hook to snap up the company for $2.2 billion. According to the press release (included after the break), a special committee of the Clearwire Board of Director's has decided to negotiate with dish based on its proposal, although it has not changed its recommendation of the current Sprint transaction.

Predictably, Sprint is not taking the news well, producing a series of bullet points (also in the release) about why Clearwire can't and / or shouldn't sell to Dish. Dish's statement is short and to the point, only saying it looks forward to working with the special committee as they evaluate its proposal. Of course, since Dish is offering $3.30 per share and Sprint is offering $2.97 one can see why the board is mulling it over, but all we know for now is that the "definitive agreement" with Sprint... wasn't.

Continue reading Dish Network makes an offer to buy Clearwire, even though Sprint was already buying Clearwire

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Source: Clearwire, Dish Network, Sprint

Sprint Buys Clearwire

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Sprint today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the approximately 50 percent stake in Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) it does not currently own for $2.97 per share,...

Sprint confirms it’s buying the rest of Clearwire for $2.2 billion

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Sprint confirms it's buying the rest of Clearwire for $22 billion

Sprint has just announced that it has entered into a "definitive agreement" to buy the 50 percent stake of Clearwire it doesn't already own. The transaction, worth $2.2 billion, is $100 million higher than the original offer House Hesse had made, once rumors of the deal had pushed Clearwire's share price up. While the deal is contingent upon the legal nuts-and-bolts of the Sprint-Softbank merger going through, the Japanese company has already given its blessing to the deal.

Big Yellow has also garnered support from Clearwire's big-ticket minority shareholders, including Comcast, Intel and BrightHouse Networks. As part of the deal, Sprint will take on Clearwire's $5.5 billion in debt and licensing obligations, as well as coughing up a further $800 million in investment for the constantly-ailing network provider. If it meets regulatory approval, then the deal will complete in 2013, and never again will Dan Hesse have to have that dream nightmare about LightSquared.

Continue reading Sprint confirms it's buying the rest of Clearwire for $2.2 billion

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