Tokyo-based SoftBank has agreed to give the federal government the right to approve one of the directors it names to Sprint’s board. That director will be responsible for overseeing national security issues. People familiar with the matter said the government is also seeking the right to approve some of Sprint’s equipment purchases and wants the removal of Chinese gear from a Sprint affiliate’s network.

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The move comes just ahead of a vote of Clearwire shareholders scheduled for later Tuesday — a vote that clearly wasn’t going to go Sprint’s way. Sprint, which already owns just more than half of Clearwire, needed the approval of the majority of Clearwire’s minority shareholders — some of which vocally opposed the deal.

With the new offer, Clearwire said it is adjourning the scheduled meeting without taking any action, and its board will review the new offer. The meeting is now set to resume May 30.

“Consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, the Special Committee of the Clearwire Board of Directors will review this revised proposal from Sprint,” Clearwire said.

It’s unclear, though, whether the bump will be enough to satisfy shareholders such as Crest Financial, who have said they believe that Clearwire is worth significantly more than Sprint’s original $2.97-per-share offer. Sprint’s offer has also been contingent upon its deal with SoftBank going through, and Dish Network is also offering a rival bid for Sprint.

Sprint touted the benefits of its increased bid, while also saying it was the company’s “best and final offer.”

“The revised offer demonstrates Sprint’s commitment to closing the Clearwire transaction and improving its competitive position in the U.S. wireless industry,” Sprint said in a statement. “Sprint’s proposal provides a clear path forward for Clearwire and the merger provides attractive value for shareholders of both companies.”

Update, 10:25 a.m.: Crest Financial said it opposes the new bid as well and took issue with Clearwire’s handling of things, saying it should have a competitive bid process if it is going to sell itself.

“Clearwire is acting in its usual stockholder-unfriendly way by adjourning the special meeting to grant Sprint the ability to pose a new, still inadequate offer,” Crest general counsel David K. Schumacher said in a statement. “This is a consistent theme of this Board: Do everything possible to secure an undesirable merger with Sprint at a below market price.”

Crest also sent a letter to Clearwire’s board, urging them to reject the new bid.

The waiver allows Sprint to share certain details with Dish in order that Dish might make a formal bid. Previously, Sprint only had permission to get more information from Dish on its bid.

Both Dish and SoftBank say theirs is the best offer for Sprint. Sprint’s board has recommended approval of the SoftBank offer at a shareholder meeting next month. However, a special committee of Sprint directors is currently evaluating the Dish proposal to see if it might lead to a higher bid.

“We continue to believe that our agreed transaction, which we plan to close in approximately six weeks, creates substantially greater value and provides far greater certainty for Sprint shareholders,” SoftBank Holdings president Ron Fisher said in a statement on Monday. “We are providing this waiver because we are confident in the value of our transaction, and to ensure that Sprint and Softbank can move quickly and with no risk of delay or confusion, towards implementing our detailed investment plans.”

SoftBank said it hopes the waiver will allow the Sprint directors to promptly evaluate Dish’s offer and to complete the SoftBank deal as scheduled by July 1.

While Sprint already owns 51 percent of Clearwire, the deal requires the approval of the majority of shares voted by Clearwire’s other owners.

And the biggest of those — Crest Financial — strongly opposes the deal and has been soliciting votes against it, arguing that Clearwire is worth way more than the $2.97 per share that Sprint has offered. According to a Reuters analysis, the current deal is unlikely to pass. Wall Street also seems to be betting on a higher bid, as Clearwire shares closed trading last week at $3.20.

Crest has also sued to block a Sprint deal, hiring noted law firm Quinn Emanuel to make its case.

Pass or not, though, Sprint itself is still the subject of competing offers. Its board approved a deal with SoftBank. And Dish countered with its own offer. Both sides say their offer is the better one.

Sprint shareholders are due to vote June 12 on the SoftBank deal, an offer that has the backing of Sprint’s board and management. However, a special committee of Sprint directors is considering whether Dish’s intent is likely to lead to a “superior offer.” If so, it could change its stance on the SoftBank deal.

So, basically it’s all clear as mud. We’ll see if things look any clearer after Tuesday’s vote than they do now.

Which one that is depends, of course, on which company you ask: Dish Network or SoftBank, the two suitors for the No. 3 wireless carrier.

Each thinks it is and their rival is not, which is how contested deals always go — a back and forth of accusations and counter-charges that usually only result in muddying the waters.

Very muddy, in fact. Along with two strong-minded (and, more to the point, voluble) leaders — SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son and Dish’s Charlie Ergen — each side has an army of bankers, lawyers and other advisers willing to trot out a number of arguments for why its offer is superior and the myriad risks and downsides to the competitor’s bid.

And of course, the ultimate winner in this battle will have a huge impact on both Sprint itself and the overall level of competition in the U.S. wireless market.

So, for the benefit of the confused individual investors and consumers out there, we’ll try to boil down the points and counterpoints, as well as explain where things go from here.

SoftBank on Why Its Bid Is Better Than Dish’s:

Son made an hour-long, 11-point argument recently for why the Japanese investment and telecom giant’s bid is superior, but it basically boils down to three key points.

1) SoftBank is maintaining that Dish’s bid is actually not as good financially.

“It is incomplete and illusory,” Son said of the Dish bid, who insisted a deal by the satellite behemoth will take longer to complete and create a company swimming in debt. In contrast, Son pointed out that SoftBank is offering to put $8 billion into the company ($3.9 billion of this is already invested, so even if Dish were to prevail, SoftBank would be a significant Sprint shareholder.)

2) SoftBank promises it can get its deal done by July, while a Dish outcome could take well into next year to complete.

3) When it comes to managing things, SoftBank notes that instead of wireless experience, Dish brings only the baggage of its legacy business and a history of litigation with its partners.

SoftBank, as it touts itself, has experience running wireless companies and can offer improved scale to Sprint when it comes to buying network equipment and handsets.

“We are the world’s largest customer for many of these vendors,” Son said, emphasizing the buying power that Sprint would gain with companies such as Samsung, Ericsson and Apple. “Dish has zero expertise in our mobile industry.”

Dish, on Why Its Bid Is Better Than Softbank’s:

Dish’s main point is that its offer is just flat-out more money.

“It’s a higher financial offer,” Ergen said. “At Dish’s current stock price, our cash and the value of our shares … it’s about $7.10. The counter-offer from SoftBank is about $6.38. In fact, that’s not my words; that’s from Sprint’s own proxy.”

As for the fact its deal will take longer, Ergen says it won’t take as long as Sprint maintains and said the higher offer more than accounts for the delay.

But Ergen says Dish’s bid has several other advantages as well.

1) Dish brings a bunch of its own spectrum, representing airwaves that Sprint will inevitably need. By combining with Dish, Dish insists, Sprint will save itself from spending billions of dollars later.

2) The combined Dish/Sprint would be able to offer a combination of video, voice and data services. On the other hand, Sprint under SoftBank will have some additional capital, Dish says, but in essence be the same company that is today struggling to compete against larger rivals such as AT&T and Verizon.

3) While SoftBank is offering a bunch of cash up front, Dish said it will bring more ongoing value by virtue of various synergies, as well as the cash flow from Dish’s existing business.

“We’re bringing $20 billion of equity to the merger,” Ergen said. “I’m bringing $10 billion of equity personally. I’m taking my entire net worth and putting it into a Dish/Sprint transaction.”

Beyond the dollars-and-sense arguments, Ergen is attempting to wrap his deal in the flag, noting that his bid will create an American-owned company with Americans making the decisions, while SoftBank’s bid will put Sprint in foreign hands.

“Culturally we are much more aligned with Sprint today than probably a foreign company would be,” Ergen said. “A Japanese culture would be different than a U.S. culture. Our language is different; our culture is different. It doesn’t make their culture bad; they have a great culture. But it’s different.”

Subtle much?

Where things go from here:

Sprint is moving ahead to get all the regulatory and shareholder approvals that it needs with a goal of having the deal ready to close on July 1. A shareholder vote on SoftBank’s proposal is slated for June 12.

However, Sprint’s board has a duty to explore Dish’s bid, so it has formed a special committee to do that. That group of five independent directors — which has its own bankers and legal advisers — is in the early stages of evaluating Dish’s offer, having gotten permission from SoftBank to seek more information from the satellite company. Its job is to “provide its assessment to the full board in due course whether the proposal is, or is reasonably likely to lead to, a superior offer.”

But while Sprint is getting more information from Dish to understand its bid, information is not, at this point, flowing in the other direction. Sprint is not sharing any non-public info with Dish, meaning that Dish can’t yet undertake the due dilligence needed to make a formal bid and arrange financing.

For that to happen, Dish needs a determination from Sprint’s board committee that Dish’s interest could well lead to a superior offer. That would then pave the way for Sprint to crack open the books and Dish to make its offer.

Clearwire Muddies Things Further

A complicating factor in all this is Clearwire. Sprint already owns the majority of the wireless network operator and is seeking to buy the rest of the company to boost its spectrum position. Sprint’s bid, though, is contingent on the SoftBank deal going through.

Dish had also tried to buy Clearwire before it made its offer for Sprint. Clearwire, though, is moving forward to close its deal with Sprint, though a dissident shareholder is seeking to block the deal both through a lawsuit and proxy battle.

So where does this leave things?

For the moment, investors are betting that the existence of two interested parties will mean a higher offer from someone. Shares closed on Wednesday at $7.32, higher than either company’s current offer for the company.

Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for Sprint and its customers, with little near-term impact expected as the company continues playing catch-up with AT&T and Verizon in the race to cover America with a next-generation LTE network.

Dish’s assertion that its $25.5 billion offer presents a premium to SoftBank’s proposal is “totally wrong” and “incomplete and illusory,” he declared, in a 40-minute fusillade Tuesday aimed at winning over Sprint shareholders.

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That compares to an operating loss of $255 million in the year-ago quarter on a roughly similar revenue base. The company reported a net loss of $643 million, or 21 cents per share, compared to a net loss of $863 million, or 29 cents per share in the first quarter of 2012.

The No. 3 U.S. carrier said that 86 percent of Sprint-branded phone sales were smartphones, and said it tallied more than five million smartphone sales, including 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter.

“This is a transformative year for Sprint, and we’ve gotten off to a good start,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said in a statement.

Sprint, which announced its plans to sell a majority stake to SoftBank, has said it will evaluate the recent offer from Dish, while SoftBank says it still hopes to complete the Sprint deal by July.

Update: In a conference call with investors, Hesse noted that the pending and potential deals make this an exciting time, but added, “We haven’t taken our eye off of operations.”

The company remains on track to shut down its Nextel network by June 30, with plans to start deploying LTE service on that 800MHz spectrum by the fourth quarter.

Hesse said that the company remains on track to close its pending SoftBank and Clearwire deals by July, but added that the company won’t be discussing those efforts on the call.

Pay-TV provider Dish Network Corp. has offered $25.5 billion for the mobile-phone carrier, in a headline-grabbing attempt to break up Sprint’s agreement to be bought by SoftBank Corp.

But Sprint is waging another battle over a separate, lower-profile effort to buy the roughly 50 percent stake it doesn’t own in wireless-broadband operator Clearwire Corp.

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Sprint is also in the process of trying to hire an investment bank to help it assess the unsolicited offer, the people said. For Dish to succeed, Sprint would have to reject its $20 billion agreement to sell a 70 percent stake to Japan’s Softbank Corp.

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The comments by Sprint’s fourth-largest shareholder give a boost to Dish, which lodged its unsolicited cash-and-stock offer Monday. The satellite-television operator is looking to expand its offerings to include mobile-phone service at a time when the pay-television market is reaching a saturation point.

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SoftBank’s statement comes despite a rival $25.5 billion bid for Sprint coming from Dish Network.

“SoftBank believes that the agreed terms of our transaction with Sprint offer Sprint shareholders superior short and long term benefits to Dish’s highly conditional preliminary proposal,” SoftBank said in a statement. “The SoftBank-Sprint transaction is in the advanced stages of receiving the necessary approvals, and we expect to consummate the transaction on July 1, 2013.”

The move would give the country’s largest wireless carrier the right to use airwaves currently controlled by Clearwire in big markets in the U.S. It also further complicates a three-way series of deals in which Clearwire had agreed to sell itself to part owner Sprint Nextel Corp. and Sprint agreed to sell a controlling stake in itself to Softbank of Japan.

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Ergen is famous for being a tough boss not keen on coddling his employees. At the same time, Ergen says hard workers who are good at their jobs like working for him. It’s only slackers and those who fall short who grumble.

Ergen was also one of the most colorful speakers at our D: Dive Into Media conference in February.

In that candid chat, he talked about the wireless industry, as well as cord-cutting and his controversial management style. In light of Dish’s $25.5 billion bid for Sprint, Peter Kafka’s interview with Ergen is well worth another watch:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130415/meet-charlie-ergen-the-guy-who-now-wants-to-buy-sprint/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/ http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/#comments Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:57:38 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=311854 Satellite provider Dish Network on Monday announced a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel, countering a proposed deal from SoftBank.

The cash and stock deal would give Sprint owners $7 per share — $4.76 in cash, with the remainder in Dish stock.

“We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal,” Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said in a letter to Sprint’s board.

In addition to what it says are better financial terms, Dish also brings its own wireless spectrum holdings.

“The DISH proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,” Ergen said. “Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint with a significantly-enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.”

Sprint acknowledged that it had received the Dish offer and said only that the company’s board would “evaluate this proposal carefully and consistent with its fiduciary and legal duties.”

For Dish, the move would allow it to offer a combination of wireless service, in-home and on-the-go video, as well as broadband and voice service.

Dish, which has set up a website to tout its offer, promised some $11 billion in cost savings through its deal.

The move comes amid consolidation efforts that have included AT&T’s failed bid for T-Mobile, as well as T-Mobile’s current effort to acquire MetroPCS, which is due for a rescheduled shareholder vote on April 24.

Ahead of its Sprint bid, Dish had offered to buy Clearwire, the wireless network operator that Sprint is itself in the process of trying to buy.

Ergen said at our D: Dive Into Media event in February that Dish had hoped to have its own wireless network up and running by now, but that, given the delays, it would probably need to partner with someone already in the business.

Here’s Ergen’s full letter to Sprint’s board:

On behalf of DISH Network Corporation (“DISH”), I am submitting this proposal for a merger between DISH and Sprint Nextel Corporation (“Sprint”). Our proposal provides Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank Corporation (“SoftBank”) proposal. It provides more cash and affords your shareholders the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined DISH/Sprint, which will benefit from a significantly enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal.

We are offering Sprint shareholders a total consideration of $25.5 billion, consisting of $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. Sprint shareholders would receive $7.00 per share, based upon DISH’s closing price on Friday, April 12, 2013. This consists of $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 DISH shares per Sprint share. The cash portion of our proposal represents an 18% premium over the $4.03 per share implied by the SoftBank proposal, and the equity portion represents approximately 32% ownership in the combined DISH/Sprint versus SoftBank’s proposal of a 30% interest in Sprint alone. Together this represents a 13% premium to the value of the existing SoftBank proposal.

Our proposal provides a highly-compelling and unique opportunity for Sprint shareholders. We are offering an ownership interest in a combined company with a comprehensive product and services suite, a significantly enhanced subscriber base, considerable financial and operating scale, as well as a spectrum portfolio that would lead the industry. As a result, this merger creates sizable cost and CAPEX savings and promises extensive new revenue opportunities.
Leveraging both companies’ existing assets and expertise, we will be the only company able to offer a fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services to meet rapidly evolving customer preferences. The new company’s assets will immediately establish national cross-platform leadership and will position the company to deliver innovative services while expanding our collective subscriber base.

The proposed combination will result in synergies and growth opportunities estimated at $37 billion in net present value. This includes an estimated $11 billion in cost savings, representing approximately $1.8 billion in annual run-rate cost synergies by the third year after closing.

Further, our combined national footprints and scale will allow us to efficiently develop our joint spectrum assets to provide advanced services to the millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services.
I am proud of the company we have built and believe we will be an excellent partner to Sprint. Like Sprint, DISH possesses a strong tradition of innovation and industry leadership. We created the third largest pay-TV provider while competing with incumbent cable monopolies and other entrenched operators. DISH has consistently led our industry in service and technology delivery with award-winning innovations like Hopper with Sling. Our history of value creation is outstanding. Investors in our 1995 initial public offering have enjoyed a total return of 27 times their original investment, significantly outperforming the broader markets and our peers. We also have a proven track record of responsible capital management.
DISH has significant experience structuring and consummating strategic transactions and only needs to complete confirmatory due diligence, which we believe can be done quickly with your cooperation. We have examined your merger agreement with SoftBank and we would be prepared to execute a definitive merger agreement on substantially similar terms and conditions. Though not a condition of our proposal, we anticipate that the pending transaction with Clearwire would be completed. We are confident that we can obtain all necessary approvals within a reasonable timeframe.

We intend to fund the $17.3 billion cash portion of the transaction using $8.2 billion of our balance sheet cash and additional debt financing. We have a proven track record in raising capital to fund strategic initiatives and have received a Highly Confident Letter from our financial advisor, Barclays, confirming our ability to raise the required financing.

We would be pleased to discuss our plans for the combined company and we are available at any time to meet with the Sprint Board, management and advisors to answer any questions about our proposed merger. We are confident that the Sprint Board will share our view that this proposed merger offers an excellent opportunity for the equity holders of Sprint to realize a superior value for their shares that is unavailable to them under the SoftBank proposal.
While it would have been our preference to have confidential discussions regarding this proposed merger, your existing agreement with SoftBank and the impending deadlines associated with your shareholder vote, will compel us to confirm our intentions publicly.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Very Truly Yours,
DISH Network Corporation
Charlie Ergen
Chairman

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130415/dish-offers-25-5-billion-to-buy-sprint-in-rival-bid-to-softbank/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130328/china-worries-arise-in-sprint-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20130328/china-worries-arise-in-sprint-deal/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:30:42 +0000 Spencer E. Ante, Danny Yadron and Thomas Gryta http://allthingsd.com/?p=307392 The U.S. government is seeking oversight of network-equipment purchases as a condition for approving Softbank Corp.’s $20 billion acquisition of U.S. phone carrier Sprint Nextel Corp., a move that appears to be aimed at keeping out Chinese suppliers like Huawei Technologies Co., people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. treatment of those suppliers has inflamed tensions between the U.S. and China, which are already sparring over accusations of computer hacking and trade issues. After the House intelligence committee concluded in October that Huawei and Chinese rival ZTE Corp. pose national-security risks because their equipment could be used for spying, China’s Commerce Ministry lashed out, saying the report violated the U.S.’s free-market principles and warning it could undermine cooperation between the countries.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130328/china-worries-arise-in-sprint-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130318/hesse-masayoshi-son-met-with-fcc-to-pitch-softbank-sprint-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20130318/hesse-masayoshi-son-met-with-fcc-to-pitch-softbank-sprint-deal/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:39:20 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=304616 Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son met last week with members of the Federal Communications Commission to pitch the benefits of their proposed deal.

In a regulatory filing with the commission, Sprint confirmed the meeting as well as details of its pitch for approval of the deal.

SoftBank has proposed acquiring a controlling interest in Sprint as well as enabling Sprint to acquire the rest of Clearwire — a move supported by Clearwire’s board but opposed by some Clearwire shareholders.

Clearwire CEO Erik Prusch also attended the March 14 meeting with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and other members of the commission.

The company is willing to pump more than $20 billion into Sprint, with more than $12 billion going to shareholders and $8 billion funneled into improving Sprint’s network.

During the meeting, Son explained what he had done in creating one of Japan’s largest wireless providers after entering as an upstart in 2006 by purchasing Vodafone’s Japanese wireless interests.

“Through innovative products, pricing, and marketing, SoftBank is now poised to become the second largest wireless provider in Japan,” Sprint said in the filing. “Mr. Son explained that through SoftBank’s investment in Sprint, he hopes to bring a similar competitive spark to the U.S. wireless marketplace.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130318/hesse-masayoshi-son-met-with-fcc-to-pitch-softbank-sprint-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/ http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:39:44 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=298353 A significant Clearwire shareholder says its research shows that the company’s spectrum is worth two to three times what Sprint is offering in its takeover bid.

Crest Financial, which owns 8 percent of Clearwire’s Class A shares, says a study it commissioned from Information Age Economics confirms its position that Sprint’s offer of $2.97 per share undervalues the company.

Crest also argues in a regulatory filing with the Federal Communications Commission that the proposed deal runs contrary to the public interest, given the shortage of available spectrum.

“The merger would contradict the FCC’s stated mission to maximize spectrum availability for public consumption,” Crest said. “What’s more, it would place the country’s largest remaining spectrum portfolio in hands least equipped, by past example, to serve the best interests of the United States and its wireless consumers.”

In addition to its petitions to the FCC, Crest has sued to block the deal from going forward. Dish Network has made a rival bid for Clearwire, and asked regulators to hold off on their review of Sprint’s bid.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130226/shareholder-says-clearwire-spectrum-worth-two-to-three-times-what-sprint-is-offering/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20130204/why-twitter-is-buying-bluefin-and-why-bluefin-is-selling/ http://allthingsd.com/20130204/why-twitter-is-buying-bluefin-and-why-bluefin-is-selling/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:15:36 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=291468

Bluefin Labs

As Business Insider reported, Twitter is buying Bluefin Labs, the social analytics company.

My understanding is that the deal isn’t done yet, but it will be soon. When it is, Twitter will likely end up spending more than $70 million for the company. Bluefin raised a reported $20.5 million over its four-year life, so at least some of its investors, which include Softbank and Time Warner, will see a respectable return.

This isn’t an “acqhire”: Twitter is buying both Bluefin’s team and its technology, and will end up turning its Boston headquarters into a Twitter outpost.

Selling this early, at this price, wasn’t part of Bluefin’s plan. The notion was to create a full-fledged rival to Nielsen by starting out with social analytics, aimed at telling programmers and marketers what people were saying about them when they watched TV. Eventually they were supposed to add more verticals.

But people familiar with the company said that it has had trouble peddling its analytics services to big brands, so selling now makes sense.

And it makes plenty of sense for Twitter, because it gives the company a turnkey research operation, which it will need if it wants to fulfill its enormous revenue and valuation expectations.

Twitter was telling outsiders it expected to generate $350 million in revenue last year, and $1 billion this year. So it’s already selling lots of advertising. But it’s in a very similar position to Facebook a few years ago: Marketers are willing to take a flyer on Twitter ads, because lots of people are using it and it seems interesting, but they’re not quite sure what they’ll get out of it.

At least part of Bluefin’s job will be help close those sales, and get them to buy again by proving out Twitter’s value to both programmers and advertisers. You can think of it as an analogue to the well-respected research teams that already exist at the big TV networks — except the TV guys have decades of tradition and research backing up their pitches. Twitter’s job is much harder.

Meanwhile, Nielsen is trying to do the same thing. Last year, it acquired SocialGuide, a small social analytics company. And in December, Nielsen and Twitter announced a research alliance,  so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

The deal also creates a question mark for Trendrr, another analytics company that has gotten some attention from advertisers and programmers. Bluefin had a lot more funding and marketing horsepower behind it, and concluded that it was better off selling. So Trendrr will have its work cut out for it if it wants to stay solo.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130204/why-twitter-is-buying-bluefin-and-why-bluefin-is-selling/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130129/sprint-dojs-request-for-time-to-study-softbank-deal-is-routine/ http://allthingsd.com/20130129/sprint-dojs-request-for-time-to-study-softbank-deal-is-routine/#comments Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:58:43 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=289781 The Justice Department has asked the Federal Communications Commission to delay red-stamping Sprint’s planned $20 billion deal with Japan’s SoftBank, saying it wants to study the national security implications.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department “are currently reviewing this matter for any national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues but have not yet completed that effort,” a Justice Department lawyer said in a letter to the FCC.

“We therefore request that the Commission defer action until such time as the Agencies notify the Commission of the completion of their review and, based on the results of such review, request appropriate action by the Commission,” the letter continued.

Sprint, for its part, characterized the request as routine.

“This is a routine request when working with the [U.S. government] agencies regarding national security,” Sprint said in a statement.

The No. 4 U.S. carrier, T-Mobile, is already in foreign hands as a unit of Deutsche Telekom, while Verizon Wireless is partly owned by Vodafone.

The request from the DOJ was reported earlier Tuesday by Bloomberg. Dish Network, which like Sprint is bidding for Clearwire, has also asked the FCC to hold off on approving the Softbank deal.

Sprint is still aiming to close the deal in mid-2013.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130129/sprint-dojs-request-for-time-to-study-softbank-deal-is-routine/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/ http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:56:32 +0000 Thomas Gryta http://allthingsd.com/?p=286622 Dish Network Corp. has asked the Federal Communications Commission to halt the regulatory-review “shot clock” for Softbank Corp.’s plans to buy a 70 percent stake in Sprint Nextel Corp. for $20 billion.

In the filing, posted Thursday, Dish said many issues are unresolved in the acquisition review, which includes Sprint’s deal to buy the rest of majority-owned Clearwire Corp. Dish recently proposed a $3.30-a-share offer for Clearwire, above Sprint’s agreement to pay $2.97 a share, and says that uncertainty surrounding process could lead to major amendments to the Sprint/Softbank review.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130117/dish-asks-fcc-to-halt-sprint-softbank-review-clock/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130108/dish-network-makes-5-15-billion-offer-for-clearwire/ http://allthingsd.com/20130108/dish-network-makes-5-15-billion-offer-for-clearwire/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2013 23:27:14 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=283608 Satellite TV player Dish Network has made an unsolicited offer to buy out Clearwire, the wireless broadband service that’s mostly owned by Sprint, for $3.30 a share, or about $5.15 billion.

Clearwire said the Dish offer amounts to only a preliminary indication of interest, and that while it intends to hold discussions with Dish, its ability to enter into strategic transactions is limited by its current relationship with Sprint.

Sprint, which is in the process of being bought out by the Japanese investment firm Softbank for about $20 billion, last month offered to buy out the remaining shares of Clearwire for $2.97 a share. That offer valued Clearwire at about $10 billion, including $5.5 billion worth of debt and spectrum lease obligations.

Sprint’s reaction to Dish’s offer has been to call it “illusory,” inferior to its own offer and “not viable” based on its existing commitments to Sprint.

It seems Charlie Ergen, the founder and chairman of Dish Network, will have a great deal to talk about at our D: Dive Into Media conference on Feb. 11-12 in Laguna Niguel, Calif.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130108/dish-network-makes-5-15-billion-offer-for-clearwire/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20130103/buzzfeeds-investors-are-back-for-19-million-more/ http://allthingsd.com/20130103/buzzfeeds-investors-are-back-for-19-million-more/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:01:41 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=282025 BuzzFeed, the fast-growing, Facebook-friendly Web publisher, has raised another $19.3 million. The deal comes a year after the company rounded up $15.5 million in funding, and involves the same set of investors, including New Enterprise Associates, Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, Softbank and RRE. BuzzFeed has raised more than $46 million since 2008, and says the money will go into international expansion, among other plans.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20130103/buzzfeeds-investors-are-back-for-19-million-more/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20121211/sprint-in-talks-to-buy-clearwire/ http://allthingsd.com/20121211/sprint-in-talks-to-buy-clearwire/#comments Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:40:37 +0000 Sharon Terlep and Anton Troianovski http://allthingsd.com/?p=276891 Sprint Nextel Corp. is in talks to acquire the 49 percent of Clearwire Corp. it does not already own in a move to clear up a tangled ownership structure that has left Sprint unable to control the decisions of a key strategic partner, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

Sprint is also after its smaller partner’s spectrum rights.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20121211/sprint-in-talks-to-buy-clearwire/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20121206/metropcs-ceo-softbank-deal-complicates-any-sprint-bid/ http://allthingsd.com/20121206/metropcs-ceo-softbank-deal-complicates-any-sprint-bid/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:00:29 +0000 Thomas Gryta http://allthingsd.com/?p=275648 MetroPCS Communications Inc. Chief Executive Roger Linquist said the timing of Sprint Nextel Corp’s pending deal to sell a 70 percent stake to Softbank “certainly could be” problematic if Sprint wants to make an offer for MetroPCS.

Shares of the pay-as-you-go wireless carrier have been volatile as speculation continues over whether Sprint will make an superior offer to MetroPCS’s acquisition by Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20121206/metropcs-ceo-softbank-deal-complicates-any-sprint-bid/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20121204/yahoo-exec-reses-joins-alibaba-board/ http://allthingsd.com/20121204/yahoo-exec-reses-joins-alibaba-board/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 04:53:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=275218 Alibaba Group said that top Yahoo exec Jackie Reses had joined its board of directors, taking over a slot most recently held by the company’s former CFO Tim Morse and also previously held by Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang. Reses was named EVP of people and development in September, overseeing human resources and corporate development at the Silicon Valley Internet giant. The board of the Chinese e-commerce company, in which Yahoo still holds a large stake — about 23 percent fully diluted — after selling a multi-billion-dollar chunk recently, also included Alibaba’s top execs Jack Ma and Joe Tsai, as well as SoftBank’s CEO Masayoshi Son. Japan’s SoftBank also has a major investment in Alibaba. As part of the buyback agreement with Alibaba, Yahoo has relinquished the right to a second seat.

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