Contact Us
Subscribe to this blog via RSS
Join us on LinkedInCategories
- Compliance
- Disaster relief
- Income Tax
- Main Street Lending Program
- remote work
- Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA")
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL)
- Payroll Protection Program (PPP)
- CARES Act
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act
- COVID-19
- Small Business Administration (SBA)
- Liability Waivers
- Miller, as Next Friend of her Minor Child, E.M. v. House of Boom Kentucky, LLC
- Intangible Assets
- Taxation
- Tax consequences
- Community Banks
- Dodd-Frank Act
- SEC Crowdfunding Rules
- Judgment creditors
- Corporate
- Diversity
- ERISA
- Litigation
- Municipal Liability
- Consumer Debts
- Employment Law
- Entrepreneur
- Lenders
- Small Business
- Business Entities
- Equity Development
- Investment
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Sales and Dissolutions
- Business Formation and Planning
- Closely Held Businesses
- Corporate and Business Tax
- Uncategorized
FCC Approves Sprint, Clearwire Buyouts Over Rival's Objection
Despite a furious national security objection by rival DISH Network Corporation, the Federal Communications Commission has approved the $21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corporation by SoftBank of Japan. After the order was released on Friday, SoftBank moved forward quickly and announced it expects to complete the transaction by tomorrow, July 10.
Sprint was also seeking to purchase the other half of the broadband network Clearwire, of which it already controls half, and the FCC's order also allowed that deal to move forward. Clearwire's shareholders approved that acquisition yesterday, so the nested deals appear to be on track.
Sprint's rival DISH, while attempting to mount its own takeover bid, had challenged SoftBank's acquisition of Sprint on national security grounds because of the company's ties to Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturers. That challenge had kept the deal in limbo for months, even though the Treasury Department's the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviewed the national security issues and approved the deal in May.
Sprint shareholders voted to approve the acquisition last month, but anxious investors were still concerned about a possible FCC denial based on the DISH objection.
That concern turns out to have been unfounded. On Friday, the FCC denied DISH's challenge, saying instead that the deal would actually benefit consumers because SoftBank and Sprint aren't competitors within the U.S. One FCC commissioner made a statement praising the acquisition as allowing consumers of advanced wireless products and services to benefit from an "invigorated company" and emphasizing that the companies stand to gain substantially from the deal.
"As we've now shown that regulation need not impede access to the international financial markets and foreign capital," he said in a statement.
Sources:
- The New York Times' DealBook, "F.C.C. Clears Sprint Deals With SoftBank and Clearwire," July 5, 2013
- Reuters, "Clearwire shareholders vote for Sprint takeover," Bryan Cohen and Sinead Carew, July 8, 2013
