Sprint CEO: Clearwire offer our 'best and final' one
"You can take that to the bank," CEO Dan Hesse tells CNET on his sweetened offer for Clearwire.
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LAS VEGAS -- Sprint's sweetened bid for Clearwire represents its "best and final" offer, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told CNET on the sidelines of the CTIA Wireless show here Tuesday.
"You can take that to the bank," he said.
Sprint earlier today raised its offer for Clearwire to $3.40 a share, valuing the company at $10.7 billion. The offer is a substantial premium over its original $2.97 a share offer, and 10 cents a share more than Dish Network's competing bid for Clearwire.
Clearwire shareholders had been agitating for a better offer from Sprint after Dish came in with its bid. Sprint had previously maintained that it was the only logical and viable partner for Clearwire because they already do so much business together.
Hesse said he hopes the deal will be wrapped up soon.
Complicating things further is Dish's existing offer to buy Sprint itself. Dish's offer is richer than the deal proposed by SoftBank. On Monday, SoftBank gave Sprint permission to talk to Dish to weigh the offers.