Sprint Bumps Up Offer For Clearwire To $5 Per Share

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Sprint has announced that it has entered into an agreement to buy the other half of Clearwire for $5 per share, beating Dish’s current offer by $0.60 per share. The newly-revised deal values Clearwire at $14 billion, which represents a 47% increase over Sprint’s previous offer of $3.40 per share.

Sprint claims that several large investors and profitable share holders totalling 9% of Clearwire’s voting shares have committed to the new offer, as have Intel, Comcast, and Bright House Networks, which hold another 13%. Put all these groups together with Clearwire’s directors and officers and they represent 45% of the company’s voting shares, which are not controlled by Sprint, and who have agreed to vote for the deal.

Add those votes to the other previous shareholders who have voiced they’re approval for the Sprint-SoftBank acquisition and Sprint is more than confident that they will get a majority of Clearwire shareholders to approve its deal in the end.

However, Sprint’s higher offer comes with some strings attached. A new clause in the contract will require Clearwire to pay a whopping $115 million breakup fee, (which amounts to about 3% of the minority stake), to Sprint if the deal is not signed, sealed and delivered.

In addition, if the deal is not finalized, Clearwire is required to hold a shareholders meeting as quickly as possible to forfeit the provision of its Equityholders Agreement between the companies.

To clarify, Sprint is ready to buyout Clearwire and finalize the deal as quickly as possible, so that it can move onto receiving a large strategic investment from SoftBank.