Institutional Shareholder Services, the proxy advisory firm, recommended on Thursday that Clearwire shareholders reject a proposed takeover bid by Sprint Nextel, worth $3.40 a share in light of a revised offer from Dish Network worth $4.40 a share. Clearwire’s board has recommended that its shareholders also vote in favor of the Dish bid over Sprint’s offer.
Sprint had already increased its offer in May but has not gone further than that. Sprint is facing resistance in its bid for Clearwire, which it views as an important part of its turnaround strategy. A number of major shareholders had angrily denounced the previous bid of $2.97 a share as too low, though other major Clearwire investors had already sold to Sprint at lower prices.
Clearwire had already postponed a shareholder vote on the Sprint bid to June 24.
