Companies are waiting for the approval of The Federal Communications Commission which is said to post its opinion shortly. The deal is supposed to be officially made at the first week of next month.
Yesterday Sprint Nextel shareholders voted on the decision to approve $21.6 billion bid for a 78% stake of the company which is the third largest mobile operator in the United States. This came after the sweetened deal from Japanese Softbank and the surrender of the other suitor – Dish Network.
On the voting day Sprint accepted the deal with a consensus of 98% of the votes on the meeting.
“Today is a historic day for our company, and I want to thank our shareholders for approving this transformative merger agreement,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint’s chief executive, cited by Financial Times. The CEO will continue to run the company after the deal is completed. “The transaction with SoftBank should enhance Sprint’s long-term value and competitive position by creating a company with greater financial flexibility.” he added.
According to the deal, Sprint stockholders will have the option to receive cash in the amount of $7.65 or one share of new Sprint common stock for each share of Sprint common stock owned by them. The total cash available to Sprint stockholders is $16.64 billion.
It is believed that after the agreement, Sprint would own far stronger balance sheet which would stabilize share price of the company.
Interesting fact is that Sprint while being purchased is trying to acquire itself another company – Clearwire, a wholesale wireless broadband operator company. Sprint recently raised its bid for Clearwire competing with the already mentioned Dish Network.
Clearwire’s shareholders will vote on the competing bids early next month in a shareholder meeting of the company.
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