Sprint today submitted a revised offer for Clearwire and increased its bid from $2.97 per share to $3.40 per share, now totaling about $2.5 billion.
Sprint hopes the improved offer will give Clearwire’s board and investors the incentive they need to approval the deal. Sprint is looking to purchase the 50% of Clearwire that it does not already own in order to gain control over the company’s 2.5GHz spectrum holdings, as well as ease SoftBank’s 70% equity acquisition of Sprint. SoftBank had initially limited Sprint’s bid to $2.97, but has approved the new offer.
Though Clearwire’s board approved the initial offer, it met fierce resistance from several large shareholders who were unhappy with the terms. Clearwire’s board will assess the new proposal and make a new recommendation to shareholders, who will vote on the matter May 30.
