Sprint, SoftBank, Clearwire, Dish... anybody else?

The seemingly eternal corporate jockeying for position in the wireless world got a lot more complicated over the past few days as Dish Network made a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

“The cash-and-stock bid pits Dish Chairman Charles Ergen, a frugal satellite pioneer who often lunches on peanut butter and jelly, against Masayoshi Son, a Japanese Internet maven who was an early investor in Yahoo Inc. and is known for his taste in fine red wine. Mr. Son’s Softbank Corp. agreed in October to pay $20 billion in cash for 70% of Sprint.”

Dish’s higher offer immediately hit SoftBank hard. “Shares in SoftBank fell as much as 9.3 percent in Tokyo on Tuesday, and finished down 6.8 percent by the end of the day,” said The New York Times.

But whether SoftBank will increase its offer or shareholders ultimately settle for one or the other of these buyers – or some other future offer – this scrum is part of a move to control the still-growing U.S. wireless market.

Sprint’s value, to a large extent, depends on whether the company can acquire Clearwire, the fifth largest wireless provider in the US with more than 10 million subscribers, spectrum holdings and a 4G network. But as Speed Matters reported back in January, Dish had made a competing bid for Clearwire, already confounding SoftBank’s takeover plans.

It could take some time before shareholders and regulatory bodies approve this deal – or it could fall through altogether.Speed Matters is concerned that whoever comes out the owner dedicate themselves to growing and preserving good jobs, and to improving communications and prices for consumers.

Billionaires Duke It Out for Control of Sprint (WS Journal, Apr. 15, 2013)

SoftBank Shares Drop After Dish’s Competing Bid for Sprint (NYT DealB%k, Apr. 16, 2013)

Trouble mounts for Sprint-Clearwire-SoftBank deal (Speed Matters, Jan. 17, 2013)