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It looked like SoftBank had a clear path to acquiring Sprint before DISH jumped in, but CEO Masayoshi Son is still confident that a deal will get done between his company and the US wireless provider. DISH had put in its own bid to absorb Sprint and its subsidiary Clearwire Corp but failed to submit a revised offer earlier this week, leaving the door open for Son’s SoftCorp to move forward with their own acquisition plans.
SoftBank offered a counter-offer to DISH’s, raising their initial bid to $21.6 billion and including a higher cash incentive to win over support from Sprint shareholders, who will meet on June 25th to discuss the proposals. Sprint recently made a move to further secure ownership of Clearwire, raising their own buyout offer. Interestingly, their prime competition here is Dish.
If everything shakes out in SoftBank’s favor, the deal could be sealed as soon as early July.
[via Reuters]
I know that this is a huge transaction but it seems like this has been going on for ages. I’m excited to see what softbank does once the buyout is complete.
If their network in Japan is any sign, Sprint customers are in for one hell of a treat.
Agreed. My brother went there for a school trip a few years back. The amount they use their phones as an every day part of life is pretty incredible. For example….. Downloading an HD movie on the way to a friend’s house (while riding buses, trains, etc….) so you can watch it from the mini-hdmi port on a big screen tv. Most people would blow through their MONTHLY data allowance just downloading an HD movie in a single shot. Not to mention that it would take forever to do so!
If Softbank brings here what they provide in Japan, there might be quite a shakeup of the wireless industry coming very soon.
It makes me sick to my stomach sometimes just knowing how much people are charged for something that is incredibly cheap to provide.
I agree with everything you said except for the cost of providing services to the public. The hardware for these network upgrades and the like are not cheap. Not to mention that you have to deal with stingy landowners and everything else in between. I will not deny that some companies (VZW + AT&T) like to nickel and dime their customers, but that’s why we have the alternatives (Sprint + T-Mobile) to provide what consumers need/want for cheaper rates.
At the end of the day, I am very excited to have Spank in action. I know that Softbank will definitely provide the boost we needed in Network Vision deployment.
iKev back again writing for Phandroid…? Hows that iPhone 5 treating you? Ya that what we thought pretty crappy. Well you guys keep having Android giveaways, maybe you should enter one and try and win an S4 or something.
No wonder it’s taking Sprint forever with Network Vision and they are behind schedule. I thought the Softbank deal was closed a long time ago. I just hope that all of this will lead to quicker deployment of Network Vision, as well as addition of more converted spectrum from the Clearwire purchase. I was on the verge of cancelling, due to Sprint signal going to Zero at my house (usually, the only provider with solid signal by my house). Thankfully, it was just due to upgrades and tower updates, but would love to never worry about Sprint signal ever again, especially considering how long I’ve stuck around.
Clearwire spectrum isn’t being converted. It’s going to continue to be what it is and serve as TDD-LTE on the 2600 MHz spectrum.
Would that mean that phones would have to incorporate more radios to accommodate connectivity to the new spectrum, in order for it to be valuable to the consumer? Just curious how long that would take for implementation.
Qualcomm I believe has been making real strides and breakthroughs and Softbank will hopefully be able to make twice as big deals with cell manufacturers.
I wonder if the “New Sprint” will keep Unlimited Data???
Tri-Band LTE oughta be interesting! I wonder how long it will take for the extra cash Softbank will be pumping into the “New Sprint” to be felt by end users???
It might of been $8 billion more extra cash instead of now just $2 billion ($3bn less after the Softbank for Sprint 2nd offer & $3bn less after Sprint raised it’s bid from $2.97 to $5.00 per share of CLWR) if Dish’s Charlie Ergen wasn’t such a party crasher or whatever you want to call him. He was too busy to make a real deal with Sprint or Clearwire when they came knocking on his door. Then after the Softbank deal was reported, he probably was too opportunistic to make a fair spectrum hosting deal/partnership (not much was reported about his negotiator’s trip to Japan).
Last chance Google! Pppppppplease! Lol
I was flying home from Narita, Japan and spoke with a previous SoftBank wireless customer that is moving back to the U.S., and she was not happy with them. If SoftBank treats their US customers like in japan, they may struggle here in the US. The company sends out a letter in the bill stating they have 30 days to notify them or they will automatically renew their contract for 24 months.
Anecdotal.