The year may be just about over, but it looks like Sprint is trying to squeeze is one last big deal before the calendar flips over to 2013. It's been revealed that Sprint has made an offer of $2.1 billion to buy the 48.3 percent of Clearwire that it doesn't already own. Reuters notes that Sprint's offer needs to be approved by SoftBank, the Japanese carrier that's purchasing a 70 percent stake in Sprint, and Hesse and Co. also say that its offer to Clearwire is dependent on its merger with SoftBank.
Rumors began popping up earlier this week about Sprint and Clearwire holding discussions about a possible deal between the two companies. Sprint and Clearwire have had a bit of a strange past year or so, with reports claiming in late 2011 that Sprint was interested in buying out the portion of Clearwire that it didn't own, and then in June 2012 Sprint revealed that it was no longer a majority owner of Clearwire before becoming one again in October 2012. Whether or not the two firms will finally reach an agreement and become one this time around remains to be seen, but striking a deal with Clearwire and gaining ownership of some additional spectrum would be a nice way for Dan Hesse and Sprint to finish out the year.
Via Reuters
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