[May 21, 2013] Sprint sweetens offer for remainder of Clearwire Tweet May 21, 2013 (The Kansas City Star - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday opened its wallet a bit wider to gain full control of its longtime wireless network partner Clearwire Corp. and the valuable airwaves it owns. The Overland Park, Kan.-based wireless phone company is now offering $3.40 a share, instead of $2.97 a share, for the roughly half of Clearwire it doesn't already own. The move was aimed at pleasing at least some of the unhappy shareholders Sprint seeks to buy out. Clearwire was set to vote Tuesday on the lower offer but adjourned its meeting and reset the vote for May 30. Sprint also said Tuesday it will open its financial books for Dish Network Corp. and negotiate with the company on its buyout offer. Last fall, Sprint signed a deal to be acquired by Tokyo-based SoftBank Corp. Both events bring Sprint a little closer to settling on its future ally to take on wireless industry giants AT&T and Verizon as well as rival T-Mobile USA. "Sprint is really in the catbird seat right now," technology industry analyst Jeff Kagan said in an email. "This is a very complicated choice, but it's Sprint's to make." The company's easiest decision was to raise its offer for Clearwire. A bid bump was necessary, given that Clearwire shares have been trading on the stock market at more than $3 a share since early January. The stock climbed again Tuesday. A 14-cent gain left shares at $3.40, equal to Sprint's bid and raising the possibility that more must be done. Sprint called $3.40 its "best and final offer." Sprint shares rose 10 cents to close at $7.39. Dish stock also climbed, gaining $1.23 to $39.93. Shares of SoftBank fell in U.S. markets, closing at $57.09, down $1.97. Crest Financial Ltd., a Texas-based Clearwire shareholder that has campaigned against Sprint's offer, rejected Tuesday's higher bid. It said the new bid simply revealed "that Sprint was unable to secure a majority" of votes from other shareholders, which it needs to complete the deal. Donna Jaegers, an analyst at D. A. Davidson & Co., said Sprint likely talked with other Clearwire shareholders before settling on a price it thought would secure the needed votes. Whether $3.40 is the right number remains an "open question," Jaegers said. Clearwire is critical to Sprint's long-term plans. It owns valuable wireless spectrum, which are the federally licensed airwaves that carry mobile signals that allow consumers to stream video, download apps and use other increasingly popular features of smartphones. Sprint will need the additional spectrum to meet its pledge to provide subscribers unlimited data, which runs those popular features and is a keystone in Sprint's appeal to customers. Both of Sprint's own suitors _ SoftBank and Dish _ want Clearwire in the deal they ultimately hope to make with Sprint. Dish, which operates a satellite television service, jumped into the bidding for Sprint late in the game. Its April 15 offer came after SoftBank already had invested $3.1 billion into Sprint and those companies began sharing ideas. Some analysts have said Dish's offer of $25.5 billion for all of Sprint is a better one than SoftBank's deal to buy 70 percent for $20.1 billion. Dish's financing for its bid was seen as less certain and its proposal would require taking on more debt than the SoftBank deal. Sprint agreed to negotiate with Dish after the Colorado company set up a $2.6 billion bond offering last week to raise added cash for its bid. Sprint said it has not made a decision whether Dish's offer is superior to the one from SoftBank. If it is, Jaegers said, SoftBank's "deeper pockets" means it more likely would win a bidding contest. SoftBank said Tuesday it will sell $4.9 billion in bonds to help fund its deal, according to Bloomberg News. In a statement, SoftBank said it granted a waiver under its deal with Sprint to allow the Dish talks and was confident its own deal would prevail. "We continue to believe that our agreed transaction, which we plan to close in six weeks, creates substantially greater value and provides far greater certainty for Sprint shareholders," its statement said in part. SoftBank has said it expects to complete its transaction with Sprint on July 1. Sprint shareholders are set to vote on it June 12. (EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) Comparing the price tags is only part of the decision Sprint faces. It also is weighing which partner will make it more competitive. "Both deals have a potential upside, which is very attractive to shareholders, however, Sprint will look different depending on which they choose," Kagan said. "There are no wrong answers. Just different answers and different directions." SoftBank has been a successful wireless competitor in Japan, where, like Sprint, it is No. 3 but has gained ground on its larger rivals. It also has used the same wireless technology that Clearwire is using to add faster Long Term Evolution, or LTE, wireless service. SoftBank's experience in Japan's dense urban centers would give Sprint help in deploying LTE in U.S. urban markets where Clearwire's spectrum would be most useful. Dish owns valuable wireless spectrum of its own but has said it will rely on Sprint's expertise in the wireless business. Its sees the chance to drum up new business for both companies by marketing to each others' subscribers. TV and telephones haven't been a strong combination for Verizon and AT&T, which offer an alternative to traditional cable companies in some markets. Part of Dish's vision includes building a mobile television connection for consumers. It would tap Dish's relationships with multiple TV channel providers and Sprint's emerging new mobile network capable of carrying video to smartphones and tablets. Jaegers said that could make a TV and telephone package more appealing to consumers. Sprint's choice even affects when it would be able to flex its new muscles in battle with AT&T and Verizon. The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve the SoftBank transaction soon, said Jeffrey Silva, telecommunications policy analyst at Medley Global Advisors. The FCC works on an unofficial 180-day schedule "and they're on day 172," Silva said Tuesday. Sprint's higher bid for Clearwire doesn't change the regulatory considerations, he said, only the price tags. Switching to Dish's offer, however, would start the government review all over again. "It's a whole different deal," Silva said. ___ (c)2013 The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) Visit The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) at www.kansascity.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]