In the latest twist in the Softbank-Sprint-Dish-Clearwire saga, the Clearwire board has advised shareholders to accept Dish Networks' takeover offer over majority owner Sprint's.
The board has endorsed Dish's $4.40 per share offer as a superior proposal to Sprint's $3.40 per share bid, which it has previously said was final.
Clearwire shareholders had originally been scheduled to vote on Sprint's takeover offer today, but the board has postponed the vote until June 25.
Sprint only recently secured commitments from some of Clearwire's largest minority shareholders holding around 13% of the company's shares, but these commitments may not be maintained after the board recommendation.
Earlier this week Softbank at the eleventh hour raised its offer of Sprint in the face of the separate competing bid by Dish, increasing its offer price to $7.65 per share from $7.30, and the percentage of the company it has committed to acquiring to 78% from 70%.
This is a significantly higher per-share price than the conditional $25.5 billion offer from Dish, which in any case relies on the company securing funding.