The pay-TV operator Dish Network said on Monday that it had submitted a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel.
The move is an attempt to scupper the planned takeover of Sprint Nextel by the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank, which agreed in October to acquire a 70 percent stake in the American cellphone operator in a complex deal worth about $20 billion.
Dish Network thinks it can do better.
Under the terms of its proposed bid, Dish Network said it was offering a cash-and-stock deal worth about 13 percent more than SoftBank’s bid.
Dish Network said it was offering Sprint Nextel shareholders a deal worth $7 a share, including $4.76 in cash and the remainder in its shares.
“The Dish proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,†said Charles W. Ergen, Dish Network’s chairman.
