The Federal Communications Commission announced today that it has voted unanimously to approve the applications filed by SoftBank, Sprint and Clearwire related to their transactions announced last year.
This decision completes all Federal government reviews of both SoftBank’s investment in Sprint and Sprint’s acquisition of Clearwire. Sprint’s shareholders approved the SoftBank transaction with Sprint on June 25th. Clearwire’s shareholders are scheduled to vote on the Sprint transaction with Clearwire, which has been recommended by Clearwire’s Board of Directors, on July 8th.
“We would like to thank Acting Chairwoman Clyburn, Commissioners Rosenworcel and Pai, as well as the staff of the FCC for their thorough review of these transactions,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, in the press release. “Just two years ago, the wireless industry was at the doorstep of duopoly, but with these transformative transactions, we are one step closer to a stronger Sprint which will better serve consumers, challenge the market share leaders and drive innovation in the American economy.”
“We appreciate the forward thinking, consumer focused stance the FCC has taken by approving the proposed transaction. As the company that built America’s first nationwide 4G network, Clearwire looks forward to joining Sprint and deploying an even faster and richer 4G experience for consumers across the country,” said Clearwire CEO and President Erik Prusch. “This is the right transaction at the right time to best deploy Clearwire’s spectrum to create a broadband network that will bring additional services and alternatives to wireless consumers.”
“The FCC’s thoughtful review and approval of these transactions represents an important step toward creating a more competitive U.S. wireless marketplace,” said SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son. “SoftBank’s investment in Sprint will bring innovation and increased customer focus, which will enable us to begin creating a true competitor in a market dominated by two companies. We look forward to leveraging the significant talent and resources of the New Sprint to bring innovation and better service to U.S. consumers.”
Sprint, Clearwire and SoftBank anticipate that the transactions will close in early July 2013, subject to the remaining closing conditions.
Source: Sprint Nextel
You can bet it wouldn’t have been so smooth if Apple had been involved.
SoftBank = Soft bank
Sprint = Crocodile
Clearwire = Widebeest
Go figure!
Wildebeest?
Good analogies.
Thank you Derek Currie! 🙂
Clearwire – sucked then, suck now, will suck forever!
Almost like picking a team in the NBA finals, which I care nothing about, I found myself rooting for Dish Network to win both the Sprint bid and the Clearwire acquisition.
Corporate Oligarchy back patting:
We appreciate the forward thinking, consumer focused stance the FCC has taken ad nauseam…
‘Consumer focused’ my aunt Fanny’s butt hole. This is merely more consolidation of the communications industry to the detriment of customers.
Then toss on top the fact that Sprint is renowned for having some of the WORST customer relations in ANY business. IMHO the world would be better off if Sprint had gone bankrupt so their assets could be purchased by a BETTER company and REALLY applied to benefiting customers. Extending the life of a brain eating zombie doesn’t inspire any joy in my future. 😛
Obama administration: Bought and sold out.
Boom. This is great for KC. Dish would have gutted Sprint. Softbank has an innovative CEO. Interested to see what they plan to bring to the table in the future.
FearWire was without doubt the worst service and even worse cust support I’ve ever experienced across any service, industry or product line.
If you watch 2 Netfix movies in a 24 hr period their towers automatically drop your downdload “speed” to sometimes as low as 2 Mbps which is too low to stream anymore.
They keep taking your monthly money though and don’t pro rate that to equal the reduction in “broadband.” out and out theft.
There was a class action against them. I was hoping they’d fold. Sorry to hear they got bought and financially rewarded for their abuse. Total piece of shits!
I had the extreme misfortune of being a Queerwire CSR for a few months.
You do not begin to describe how bad they suck.
I had the extreme misfortune of being a Queerwire CSR for a couple of months.
You do not begin to describe how bad they suck!
“We would like to thank Acting Chairwoman Clyburn, Commissioners Rosenworcel and Pai, as well as the staff of the FCC for their thorough review of these transactions”
Warning… As licking detected.
I guess he would har thanked then too if te deal would not have gone through?