Dish Network said late Tuesday that it would not submit a
revised offer for Sprint Nextel, effectively abandoning its pursuit of the
wireless phone giant.
Dish had launched a $25.5
billion bid for Sprint in April, which at the time appeared to be a better
offer than the $20.1
billion offer Sprint had agreed to with Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank.
But after Sprint's board said it would evaluate the Dish offer, and allowing
the
satellite giant to conduct due diligence on the wireless carrier, SoftBank
sweetened its bid for the company to $21.6 billion. The new SoftBank
proposal meant less money for Sprint, but gave more cash to Sprint
shareholders. Sprint's board of directors announced on June 10 that the
SoftBank proposal was superior, but gave Dish until June 18 to come up with a
better bid.
Late Tuesday, Dish said in a statement that it would focus
on its ongoing bid for wireless carrier Clearwire. On Monday, Sprint
sued Dish in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming its Clearwire bid violated
its existing agreements with the WiMax pioneer. Sprint owns 50.2% of
Clearwire's voting shares.
"While DISH continues to see strategic
value in a merger with Sprint, the decisions made by Sprint to prematurely
terminate our due diligence process and accept extreme deal protections in its
revised agreement with SoftBank, among other things, have made it impracticable
for Dish to submit a revised offer by the June 18 deadline imposed by
Sprint," Dish said in a statement. "We will consider our options with
respect to Sprint, and focus our efforts and resources on completing the
Clearwire tender offer."
