On Wednesday, the board of Clearwire Corp urged shareholders to accept the bid offered from Dish Network Corp. This was over the proposed deal with its majority owner Sprint Nextel Corp to buy the minority shareholders of the service provider.
The said decision of the board was a boost for Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen. Dish is also in a takeover with SoftBank Corp to take full control of Sprint Nextel.
Both Sprint and Dish want to take full control of Clearwire's licenses on wireless airwave.
Sprint is looking to beef up its wireless network to be able to compete with bigger rivals in the industry, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. Meanwhile, Dish is eyeing expansion in the wireless market after its pay-TV business has grown mature.
Clearwire recommended acceptance to its shareholders for the tender offer proposed by Dish. The said deal was priced at US$4.40 per share. This was based on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee after evaluation of the said deal was conducted. Shareholders were urged to vote against the US$3.40 offer from Sprint which plans to acquire more than 49% of the company.
The scheduled shareholder meeting on June 13 is planned to be moved until the June 24 for the voting on the Sprint bid. According to dish on Wednesday, it will extend its offer for the Clearwire shares until July 2 from its previous given deadline of until June 28.
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