Sprint Nextel sued Clearwire and Dish Network on Monday in a bid to block Dish from taking over Clearwire, Sprint's majority-owned network partner.
Dish and Sprint have been in a bidding war over Clearwire, which Sprint also plans to buy, and last week Clearwire's board recommended shareholders accept Dish's offer. But in a complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Monday, Sprint said Dish's proposal violates its rights and those of other strategic investors. In its suit, Sprint wants to prevent the deal from being consummated and seeks unspecified damages.
Sprint co-founded Clearwire along with several strategic partners in 2008 to build out a WiMax network to carry its first 4G service. It still owns a majority of Clearwire's stock and is seeking to buy out the rest of the company in order to build a strong LTE network to take on its larger rivals. Because of Clearwire's massive spectrum holdings, the fate of that company is expected to play a key role in the complicated takeover battle among Dish, SoftBank and Sprint. A lawsuit over Dish's Clearwire bid had been widely expected.
Dish is also seeking to buy out Clearwire, but in its last bid the satellite TV and Internet provider said it would be willing to buy a minority stake as long as it got certain rights, such as being able to name three board members and approve material transactions with third parties.
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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2042273/sprint-sues-dish-clearwire-over-takeover-plan.html#tk.rss_all
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