And just like that, it appears that the Sprint-Clearwire-Dish Network drama may have finally come to an end. Dish has announced that it has withdrawn its offer to acquire Clearwire for $4.40 per share, a bid that it made in late May. The company doesn't offer much more detail than that, saying only that Clearwire's recent decision to back Sprint's $5.00 per share bid was one of the reasons behind its decision.
Dish originally entered this fray way back in January, surprising many in the wireless industry by making a bid to acquire Clearwire shortly after the company had already entered into an agreement to be bought by Sprint. Dish have been involved in a bidding war for Clearwire ever since, but it appears that Sprint's offer of $5.00 per share and Clearwire's decision to back that bid has finally convinced Dish to bow out. Sprint is currently involved in a deal that'll see Japanese carrier SoftBank acquire a large stake in it, and this Clearwire deal plays a large role in Sprint's SoftBank deal.
Dish has been working to find a way to enter the mobile space ever since it gained approval from the FCC to use its satellite spectrum for a wireless network. The company seemed determined to snap up either Sprint or Clearwire, putting in multiple bids for the two companies, but now Dish is out of the running for both. Dish hasn't said what its future plans are, but previous rumors claimed that the company spoke with Deutsche Telekom about possibly merging with T-Mobile US, so Dish may not be done with wireless quite yet.
Via Dish Network
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