In a rather curious turn of events on April 15th, Dish made a buyout offer for Sprint of some $25.5 billion dollars, over $5 billion more than what has been agreed upon by Sprint and Softbank previously. In order for Dish to increase the chances of its deal being accepted, however, it is urging the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to postpone its review of the Softbank deal. As Sprint's board looks over the deal independently, the FCC's evaluation of Softbank's proposal will move along as planned if it isn't blocked or postponed.
The original deal, according to chairman of the FCC Julius Genachowski, was expected to go through by the end of May. Postponing the deal would give Dish more of a fair shot at convincing Sprint that its deal is more lucrative. The up-front purchase price being $5 billion higher certainly sounds better on paper, but there are more components to these large deals. Though Softbank's bid has been on the table for some time now, we would expect Sprint to take a long, hard look at the latest offer.
Source: Bloomberg
