Hasta La Gadget!

Dish Network has thrown in as a Sprint suitor, offering $25.5bn to pick up the ailing CDMA carrier, and frustrate would-be buyer Softbank in the process. The takeover – which Dish chairman Charles Ergen described as “much more compelling than the Softbank transaction,” in his opinion, and by the satellite TV provider’s own calculations would amount to 13-percent more than the Japanese carrier has offered – would leave Dish able to offer combined home and mobile voice, data, and entertainment services across the US.

“Sprint is in play” Ergen said of his company’s new deal, with the chairman apparently far more confident that Dish could pick up the carrier than it was about the proposed Clearwire deal earlier this year. Despite making an informal offer for Clearwire, Dish subsequently abandoned its bid after numerous legislation issues arose.

In contrast, Ergen points out, picking up Sprint would only involve paying off the $600m breakup fee that is part of the carrier’s existing sale agreement with Softbank. Dish would cover that fee, the chairman promises, in addition to paying $4.76 in cash and $2.24 in Dish stock for every Sprint share.

“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” Charles Ergen, chairman, Dish Network

The payoff for Dish is clear, the company has said. With Sprint included, the TV provider could bundle voice and internet service, in addition to mobile entertainment access, to subscribers: Sprint’s cellular data could provide an alternative to traditional DSL/cable home broadband. For Sprint, Dish argues, the benefit would be not only in cash but Dish’s existing 45 MHz spectrum holding, its roster of satellite TV subscribers, and its network of customer services and technical staff already operating in the US. In all, Dish argues it could achieve savings of around $11bn if the deal goes through.

“The combined national footprints and scale will allow DISH/Sprint to bring improved broadband services to millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services” Charles Ergen, Dish Network

Softbank announced its bid for Sprint late last year, offering $2.2bn for the carrier in what it said was an attempt to streamline the US operator’s LTE rollout, plus a shortcut to negotiating better deals for top-tier handsets. Dish came out as a vocal critic of the acquisition soon after.

The Sprint board will now have the option to consider Dish Network’s offer, though – even if accepted – Softbank will have the opportunity to increase its own bid. Dish has a new microsite detailing its proposal, with Ergen even going so far as to compare the suggested deal with Seinfeld. “In terms of our strategy,” the chairman writes, “I often think of the television show Seinfeld … you initially didn’t know exactly where things were going, but it seemed to all come together in the end.”

[via WSJ]

Dish Network bids $25.5bn for Sprint to bypass Softbank buy is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In the battle for Sprint’s heart, Dish Network always seemed to be stuck in the “friend zone”. That’s not the case anymore, however, now that Dish has quietly lobbed an informal $25.5 billion offer to purchase the carrier. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that after Dish was knocked-back in its attempts to buy Clearwire, the satellite TV company scrounged together the cash to beat Softbank’s multi billion dollar deal. If the bid is made formal, then Sprint’s board will have to decide if Softbank’s massive size and buckets of cash can be trumped by Dish’s spectrum reserves, pay-TV business and ability to skip commercials in a breeze.

Update: Dish clarified on a conference call that its bid for Clearwire is still on the table for the company to consider even if it was turned down, and that the Sprint offer is not contingent on the carrier closing out its Clearwire purchase. Should the deal go through, the plan is target underserved and rural customers, rather than competing with inner-city fiber-based services. Softbank may find itself beaten by the higher offer, but if Dish succeeds, the Japanese company would still hold around 5% of Sprint’s shares.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Wireless, HD, Mobile, Sprint

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Via: The Wall Street Journal

Source: Dish

Travel back to the time of Mobile World Congress and you’ll surely recall the LG Optimus F7, a well-specced mid-tier smartphone that left us quite impressed. Now, @evleaks has shared a peek of the device that’s adorned with the Now Network’s branding, and if all goes according to plans, the serial leaker suggests the phone will soon hit Sprint-owned Boost Mobile. A few notable features of the Optimus F7 include a 4.7-inch True HD IPS display, a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, an 8-megapixel primary camera, 2GB RAM and Android 4.1.2, which would pose a heavy challenge to Boost’s current premiere smartphone, the HTC One SV. Naturally, we’d certainly welcome the Optimus F7 on Sprint (and even Virgin Mobile), and given the Sprint Zone branding, we’ll remain cautiously hopeful that Dan Hesse is thinking the same.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

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Source: @evleaks (9to5Google)

Main Entry: purple [pur-puhl]
Part of Speech: noun, adjective
Definition: blue and red colors mixed together
Synonyms: amaranthine, amethyst, blue-violet, bluish red, color, heliotrope, lavender, lilac, magenta, mauve, mulberry, orchid, periwinkle, perse, plum, pomegranate, reddish blue, violaceous, violet, wine

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Wireless, Mobile, Samsung, Sprint

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A pretty high number of Samsung devices have recently been getting the Android Jelly Bean treatment as we recently reported the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy Tab 7.0 and Galaxy Ace 2 have all received their respective updates. It looks like we can add another Samsung device to the list as Sprint is announcing the Galaxy Victory 4G LTE will be receiving Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean.

The Galaxy Victory 4G LTE’s Jelly Bean update has started to roll out to devices earlier this morning, so if you’re a Sprint subscriber who has the device sitting on your desk, then you can expect the update to hit your device soon. The Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update will add a number of new capabilities such as the inclusion of Swype, new notifications for incoming SMS and MMS messages and the grouping of notifications coming from the same application. Victory users will also be able to voice type without the need of an Internet connection, the creation and management of Google+ events and even indoor walking directions within Google Maps.

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