An agreement has been reached between Sprint-Nextel Corp, SoftBank Corp of Japan and the US authorities as to the national security aspects of the purchase of the majority shareholdings in the US wireless carrier by the Japanese company. This was divulged by individuals who requested anonymity familiar with the transaction.
Under the agreement, the US government would be given a right to veto new equipment purchases done by sprint under specific circumstances should the company merge in the future. Furthermore, an oversight committee of four members would ensure that both companies comply with their national security promises. One member of the board of directors of Sprint would sit on the oversight committee, according to the source.
The four anonymous sources told Reuters said that the formal announcement of the unique agreement would be done by Wednesday, US time. This comes after full page ads were taken out by Dish, who is challenging Softbank's bid for Sprint Nextel as well as the latest rash of espionage incidents attributed to hackers from China.
Sprint spokesmen was unavailable for comment while Softbank for its part declined to comment on the matter.
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