SoftBank of Japan agreed late on Monday to sweeten its takeover bid for Sprint Nextel to $21.6 billion, seeking to block a rival bid by Dish Network.
Under the revised terms of the complex transaction, SoftBank will increase the cash available to Sprint shareholders by about $4.5 billion. Existing investors can now sell their shares at $7.65 a piece, up nearly 5 percent from the first offer. SoftBank will end up owning about 78 percent of Sprint.
Sprint added that it has ended sales talks with Dish, which has offered to buy all of the cellphone service provider for about $25.5 billion. In a statement, Sprint said that the satellite TV company has failed to put forward an acceptable formal bid despite weeks of conducting due diligence.
The amended deal, cobbled together largely over the last 24 hours, is an effort to preserve SoftBank’s plan to use Sprint as a springboard into the American cellphone service market. The Japanese company has been frustrated by the emergence of Dish, which has sought to stymie that plan on a number of fronts.
“The amended agreement announced today delivers more upfront cash to Sprint stockholders, while still achieving our goal of creating a well-capitalized Sprint that is better positioned to bring meaningful competition to the U.S. market,†Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s outspoken chief executive, said in a statement.
The deal has been approved by a special committee of Sprint’s board. A vote on the proposed sale has been rescheduled from Wednesday to June 25.
The new deal is still expected to close in early July, assuming that it is approved by shareholders.
