Challenges to Softbank Sprint deal

It always was a carefully balanced financial arrangement: Sprint/Nextel offered $2.97 a share to buy the half of broadband purveyor Clearwire it doesn't already own if, and only if, Japanese mega-investor Masayoshi Son's SoftBank would offer $20 billion to acquire 70 percent of Sprint/Nextel.

But now, a minority investor in Clearwire has asked the FCC to reconsider its decision that allowed Sprint to get majority control of Clearwire.

The investor, Crest Financial, owns some 8.3 percent of Clearwire. Crest has also filed a complaint in a Delaware court seeking to block the Sprint-Eagle River transaction. Crest claims that Clearwire is being railroaded into an unfavorable deal, both for Crest investors and for the public. As Crest's lawyer David Schumacher told Bloomberg: "By artificially pushing down the price of Clearwire spectrum, Sprint and Clearwire threaten to devalue future government auctions of spectrum," Schumacher said.

The threat this challenge poses to FCC review of the Sprint/Softbank deal has had an immediate effect. On the Tokyo market, mobile-phone operator SoftBank dropped 1.9 percent, the biggest loss since December 20.

Dish Network's January 8 offer to buy 24 percent of Clearwire's spectrum at $3.30 a share - an 11.1 percent premium over the Sprint purchase price - seems designed to muddy the waters even further.

Clearwire investor Crest to urge FCC to block Sprint/Clearwire deal (Fierce Wireless, Jan. 4, 2013)
 
Softbank Declines on Planned Sprint Deal Complaint: Tokyo Mover (Bloomberg, Jan. 7, 2013)

Dish Bids for Clearwire (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 8, 2013)