Dish Bids $25.5B for Sprint

Dish Network L.L.C is bidding US$25.5 billion to try to merge with Sprint Nextel Inc. The merger bid is split between $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. Sprint shareholders would receive $7.00 per share if the bid is approved. Dish claims this represents a 13 percent premium over the SoftBank Mobile merger offer for Sprint. (See Softbank to Pay $20B for 70% Sprint Stake.) "The Dish proposal clearly represents superior value to Sprint shareholders, including greater ownership in a combined company that is better positioned for the future with more spectrum, products, subscribers, financial scale and new opportunities," the company says in a statement. It says the combined company would be the only operator able to offer combined home and mobile voice and video. Dish has already put in a $2.2 billion bid for Sprint's WiMax partner Clearwire Corp. (See Dish Puts In Rival Bid for Clearwire.) Dish has collected a cash pile of $10 billion that makes these kinds of deals possible. — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile