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Softbank to Acquire 70% Stake in Sprint for $20.1 Billion

Oct 15, 2012, 7:30 AM by Eric M. Zeman
originally published Oct 14, 2012
updated Oct 15, 2012, 7:30 AM

Softbank and Sprint today officially announced that Softbank will acquire 70% of Sprint for a total of $20.1 billion. Softbank will pay Sprint $8 billion directly for an unspecified number of shares and then an additional $12 billion in additional shares from the market. In order to complete the transaction, Softbank will first set up a shell company called New Sprint in the U.S. New Sprint will be the legal vehicle through which Softbank takes control of its interest in Sprint, which will become a subsidiary of New Sprint. New Sprint will have its own board of directors, but soem of Sprint's existing board will serve on New Sprint's board, as well. Current Sprint CEO Dan Hesse will remain at the helm of the nation's third-largest network operator after the transaction takes place. The partial acquisition by Softbank will give Sprint immediate access to a large amount of cash to fund operations, further build out and improve its CDMA and LTE networks, and potentially purchase smaller network operators. The companies expect the transaction to close by the middle of 2013, pending board and regulatory approval.

Sprint / Softbank »

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Comments

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This forum is closed.

bluecoyote

Oct 15, 2012, 10:16 AM

Sprint Needs This

They need to expand their LTE footprint quickly, or they're going to bleed all of their high-end customers.

AT&T and Verizon are absolutely killing them right now- as nice as Sprint's "unlimited" is, it's like dial-up by comparison on their clogged 3G network and their WiMax network doesn't even seem capable of pulling above 100kbps anymore.

johnhr2

A few friends who have an LTE device and we live in an Sprint LTE area and it is faster compared to AT&T H+. Since AT&T doesn't have LTE up we couldn't compare and we did a simple site load after we cleared all browser cached and data, to see who loa...
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MadFatMan

Oct 15, 2012, 12:59 PM

Will Sprint Unlimited Data be Ephemeral?

Softbank will surely examine where Sprint is bleeding capital and resources such as offering UNLIMITED data when there is a clearly limited and finite resource to be had?

I am a true fan of Dan Hesse and Bob Johnson but the unlimited data business model is not sustainable while maintaining an acceptable operating margin and while contributing and maintaining the EBITDA and OBITDA.

Sprint is rich asset and spectrum but they are seriously lacking operational funds. and truly unlimited handset data is quite taxing on the resources of a network that is crippled by a botched network vision upgrade that is way over budget and behind schedule and that has negativity impacted and ALIENATED thousands of otherwise loyal base customers , almost ...
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sp_5015

I beg to differ. Unlimited Data is what is keeping Sprint competitive. What would differentiate Sprint from AT&T or Verizon if it also had tiered data? They sure couldn't keep subscribers from fleeing that's for sure. Unlimited isn't going anywhere an...
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NestorCampos89

Oct 15, 2012, 1:31 PM

Sprint rebranding? Not neccesary!

I really hope that Sprint doesn't change its logo and marketing theme, the SoftBank logo's plain, ugly, and their website looks like a knock-off of Apple's site! I've liked Sprint brand and color scheme ever since it changed it from red to yellow after the Nextel merger. I really hope the company doesn't change much, just in coverage, network and customer service!

CellStudent

Most people haven't. It's the "Shell Company" that owns 100% of Verizon Wireless. Has for over a decade, since the original merger that formed the company.

"New Sprint" is just "Cellco Partnership" for the organization formerly known as Sprint/Ne...
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Jarahawk

Oct 15, 2012, 6:11 PM

'New Sprint'

Sounds like a bad comic book plot.

WhySoBluePandaBear

Oct 14, 2012, 8:03 PM

Sprint's makin' a big come back

Their entire problem as of late, has been proper funds.

I hope they now slam billions into the network, and go to town on the greed that is known as AT&T and Verizon. 😁

T Bone

If they were making a big comeback I don't think they would need to be bought out....

Just saying....

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Willwise

A few years ago (don't remember exsact dates) I belive in 2008 Sprint sold a large majority of their towers than rented them from a third party in order to generate a large lump sum of money. This did not generate enough funds to do it, neither will ...
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jsaavedr1

Oct 15, 2012, 12:52 AM

Will Sprint change their name again?

I wonder if we will need to learn Japanese as well?

WhySoBluePandaBear

This is a rhetorical question, right?

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MadFatMan

Oct 15, 2012, 12:16 AM

This Could Be What Sprint Needs

Sprint was crashing on the table prior to Dan Hesse taking the helm,

He stopped the bleeding and got the company stabilized.

He was finally able to offload the dead weight known as iDen with an acceptable exit strategy.... (only if he could wash his hands of Clear) 🙄

It is my hope that Softbank is in it for the long haul and this will still take some time....

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