Japan’s Softbank yesterday said it was raising its bid for US firm Sprint Nextel to US$21.6 billion, the latest twist in a high-stakes bid to trump a rival offer and grab a chunk of the lucrative US mobile market.
Softbank said it would raise its original bid by US$1.5 billion, just two weeks before Sprint shareholders vote on the proposed takeover of the US-based wireless carrier.
A joint Softbank-Sprint statement yesterday encouraged Sprint investors to vote for the deal at the June 25 meeting, saying a rival US$25.5 billion bid from US satellite communications firm Dish Network was “not reasonably likely to lead to a superior offer.”
In April, Softbank chief Masayoshi Son painted his deal as superior to the Dish bid, saying his firm had more experience in debt-financed takeovers and Softbank’s bid could be consummated one year earlier than its rival.
The proposed takeover would see already heavily indebted Softbank taking on even more debts.
The Sprint shareholder meeting was originally scheduled for today, but the joint release announced it had been delayed.
Toshihiko Matsuno, a strategist at SMBC Friend Securities, said Softbank had little choice but to sweeten its offer in the face of the Dish bid.
“It underlines Softbank’s determination to buy Sprint,” Matsuno said.
However, delaying the shareholders’ meeting “could indicate in many cases that more time is needed to resolve outstanding issues,” he added.
The new Softbank bid would see it control 78 percent of Sprint, the third-largest US mobile carrier, up from 70 percent originally.
“We have decided to change part of the contents of the deal through negotiations with Sprint in the wake of a counter-proposal of takeover by Dish Network Corporation,” Softbank said.
Under the revised deal, Softbank would offer Sprint shareholders US$16.6 billion in cash compared with US$12.1 billion previously, but the complicated deal would reduce the amount of capital that the US firm would receive.
Softbank’s Tokyo-listed shares jumped 1.26 percent shortly after the announcement, but the shares finished down 0.36 percent to ¥5,500 as the broader market dipped 1.45 percent.
Last month, US national security officials approved Softbank’s planned takeover, in what would be the biggest overseas acquisition by a Japanese firm.
Under the agreement, any merger must see the appointment of an independent member to the Sprint board of directors to serve as security director.
The agreement also requires that US agencies will have a one-time authority to demand Sprint remove and decommission equipment as part of Sprint’s proposed takeover of the broadband company Clearwire, a transaction separate from the Softbank-Sprint deal.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last