Dish makes US$25.5bn Sprint bid

US satellite TV service provider Dish Network has made a US$25.5 billion (€19.5 billion) bid for US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel. 

The firm said that its proposed merger with Sprint would produce a combined company that is “better positioned for the future with more spectrum, products, subscribers, financial scale and new opportunities.”

The offer rivals an existing Sprint Nextel offer from Japan’s SoftBank, and follows rumours that Dish was eyeing rival US telco T-Mobile USA.

Dish is offering Sprint shareholders a total consideration of US$25.5 billion, consisting of $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The firm said its bid would give Sprint a 32% stake in the combined company and claimed it is a 13% premium on SoftBank’s offer.

“A transformative Dish/Sprint merger will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services,” said Dish chairman Charlie Ergen.

“Additionally, the combined national footprints and scale will allow DISH/Sprint to bring improved broadband services to millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services.”