Sprint-Softbank Merger Likely to Pass Quickly through FCC Approval

[dgstorm]

Despite some hiccups along the way, the Sprint-Softbank Merger is back on track and is likely to pass through FCC approval very quickly. Earlier this year the deal was slowed down by Dish Network trying to horn in. Dish attempted a larger takeover offer of Sprint than Softbank. They also tried to buyout Clearwire from underneath Sprint in order to complicate things further and pressure Sprint into selling to them. In the long run they failed on both counts, although they did succeed in getting Sprint to increase their offer for Clearwire and succeeded in getting Softbank to increase their offer for Sprint. This did nothing for themselves in the long-run, but shareholders of both Sprint and Clearwire are probably quite pleased.

Now that all of that drama is gone, the much more logical merger with Softbank can proceed forward. Here's a quote with the details,

Unnamed sources tell Bloomberg that a majority of commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission support SoftBank’s $21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint, thus paving the way for Sprint to have the investment resources it needs to compete with rivals Verizon and AT&T. Bloomberg’s sources also say that the FCC’s approval will cover Sprint’s full acquisition of similarly troubled wireless wholesaler Clearwire, which will give Sprint a large bounty of spectrum that it can use to expand its LTE network throughout the United States. Sprint shareholders approved the SoftBank merger last week so the FCC’s final approval is the last big hurdle that the companies need to formally finish their merger, which SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has projected will be completed this month.

It will be interesting to see this new lean and mean Sprint within a couple of years. Perhaps the number three carrier in the U.S. can finally start offering more powerful competition to AT&T and Verizon, and force them to become more competitive.

Source: BGR