Clearwire board has urged shareholders to accept Dish Network’s offer of $4.40 per share against Sprint Nextel’s $3.40 per share to buy the minority shareholders of the wireless service provider.
The Dish tender offer is set to expire on July 2, 2013.
Since Clearwire recommended that stockholders vote against the offer from Sprint, the decision will be a boost for Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen who is also in a takeover battle with SoftBank to take full control of Sprint.
Responding to Clearwire’s board decision, Sprint said: “Sprint is evaluating statement from Clearwire’s board and will review any corresponding filings before determining its next steps.”
Dish is looking to expand into the wireless market because its traditional pay television business has matured, while No. 3 U.S. mobile provider Sprint wants to beef up its wireless network to better compete with bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Reuters reported.
Sprint previously said its $3.40 per share bid was final to buy more than 49 percent of the company it does not already own.
Clearwire said it would postpone a June 13 shareholder vote on the Sprint bid until June 24. Dish said on Wednesday it was extending its tender offer for Clearwire shares to July 2 from a previous deadline of June 28.
Dish also said shareholders with 245,411 shares had tendered shares as of Tuesday, June 11.
SoftBank, which approved the Sprint bid for Clearwire, had previously said it would be happy with majority ownership of Clearwire even if shareholders voted down the deal because Sprint would still control of the company.
Earlier this week, SoftBank increased its bid for Sprint to $21.6 billion for 78 percent of the company in response to Dish’s offer of $25.5 billion. In this case, Dish is still evaluating its strategies for a counter offer.
Earlier, Dish Network tried to convince Sprint shareholders and the U.S. government about possible security threats if SoftBank takes over the American wireless company since the Japanese telecom giant works with Chinese equipment makers.
