Sprint seems to have gained the upper hand today in the ongoing tug-of-war over Clearwire after submitting a bid to purchase it at $5 per share.
A little more than a week has passed since Clearwire’s board decided to support Dish’s bid of $4.40 a share over Sprint’s previous $3.40 per share bid. Sprint shot back with a lawsuit that claims Dish tried to “fool” Clearwire’s Board of Directors and shareholders.
Sprint has secured voting commitments from shareholders that control about 21 percent of Clearwire’s shares, on top of the support of the board. Sprint said in a press release that it “expects a majority of the non-Sprint stockholders to support the Clearwire merger based on these agreements and the votes of shareholders with both Sprint and Clearwire shareholdings who have already voted in favor of the Sprint Softbank transaction.”
Clearwire’s board said in a press release that the shareholder meeting which was originally planned for Monday will be postponed until July 8 in Bellevue.
Clearwire’s stock closed up 35 cents at $5.05 today following the news.
Previously on GeekWire: Clearwire board changes tune, snubs Sprint and now favors Dish’s $4.40 per share offer … Sprint launches legal attack, says Dish attempted to ‘fool’ Clearwire shareholders in ‘bad faith’ bid