Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 3-DISH offers to buy Clearwire for $3.30 per share

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UPDATE 3-DISH offers to buy Clearwire for $3.30 per share Jan 9th 2013, 01:22 Tue Jan 8, 2013 8:22pm EST * Dish makes unsolicited, non-binding offer for Clearwire * Major shareholder Sprint says offer is not viable * Second largest shareholder says keen to hear details of Dish offer Jan 8 (Reuters) - Dish Network put in a bid for Clearwire Corp on Tuesday which could trump Sprint Nextel's $2.2 billion offer and set the stage for a takeover battle over a wireless service provider that owns crucial mobile spectrum. Dish's $2.28 billion offer appeared to affirm the satellite television provider's ambitious plan to buy its way into the wireless services industry, on which it has already spent $3 billion acquiring much-needed capacity. The success of the move hinges on a number of conditions, not least of which is approval by wireless carrier Sprint, which owns just over 50 percent of Clearwire and is also keen to buy Clearwire shares. It has offered to buy those it does not currently own for $2.97 a share. Clearwire made it clear that the proposal of $3.30 per share was only a preliminary indication of interest and subject to a number of uncertainties and conditions. Based on Clearwire's outstanding class A shares the offer would amount to $2.28 billion. Clearwire shares were trading at $3.18 after-hours on Tuesday after closing at $2.90 on Monday. Sprint responded to Dish's bid by saying it believed Dish's offer to be inferior to its own and not viable. But Clearwire's second largest shareholder, Crest Financial, said it was looking forward to hearing details of the Dish offer and that the proposal proved that Sprint's offer for Clearwire was inadequate. Crest has said Sprint's offer grossly undervalues Clearwire and that it will ask the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to block Sprint's plan to sell 70 percent of itself to Softbank Corp of Japan for $20 billion. Dish, controlled by billionaire founder Charlie Ergen, has been gearing up for a fight with Sprint over its plan with Softbank. Dish last month asked the U.S. telecom regulator for more time to file an objection to Sprint's proposed sale of a controlling stake to Softbank due to Sprint's announcement of its plan to buy out Clearwire. Analysts said Dish's proposal may result in a sweetened bid from Sprint. "It does show that he (Ergen) is more likely than not committed to the (wireless) business but if he doesn't get it, the worst case is that he forces Sprint to pay a bit more money," Matthew Harrigan, an analyst at Wunderlich Securities, said. "If it works, it could be a home run but the execution risks are high," he added. Clearwire's special committee of the board of directors has not made any change to its recommendation of the current Sprint transaction, Clearwire said. Dish's head of corporate development, Tom Cullen, said the company was looking forward to working with Clearwire's special committee. Dish shares dropped 1.3 percent to $35.50 in after-hours trade on Tuesday. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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