Dish maintains that it’s offer for Clearwire is fair and legal, and Sprint’s attempt to block it in the courts is just an attempt to divert attention away from its own failed bid. Read more »
Sprint has filed a lawsuit in Delaware against Clearwire and Dish, claiming their pending nuptials violate state laws and the company’s shareholder agreements. Read more »
Clearwire resisted Dish’s advances for five months, but it has finally given in. Clearwire’s board recommended today that shareholders give Sprint the old heave-ho and back Dish’s offer to assume a major stake in the WiMAX operator. Read more »
The Sprint board is kicking Dish to the curb, saying the company has yet to submit an “actionable” offer, but it is giving Dish another week to come up with something better. Read more »
Cyber threats are now a critical issue affecting the national security of nation countries worldwide. At the same time, the IT world is witnessing a wave of new innovation, and there are numerous business opportunities for technologies built around the emerging market sectors of mobile and cloud computing. These technologies and the companies creating with them will form the future of cloud security over the next several years. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
If Sprint’s shareholder vote doesn’t go its way on Wednesday, SoftBank has another option for entering the U.S. mobile market. According to Reuters, SoftBank is considering T-Mobile US as a plan B. Read more »
Sprint needed a national security director to keep eye on its soon-to-be owner SoftBank. So it picked a doozy of a candidate: Retired Admiral and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen. Read more »
MetroPCS will start selling smartphones and SIM cards that connect to T-Mobile’s GSM and HSPA networks starting June 12, according to a PhoneArena report. T-Mobile is wasting no time converting Metro’s CDMA customer base. Read more »
The terms Dish wants in its bid to invest in or take over Clearwire violate Delaware state law, making the deal “not actionable”, Sprint’s lawyers maintain. Read more »
We’ll have to wait until June 13 if not longer to see the outcome of Sprint’s takeover attempt at Clearwire. The WiMAX operator has delayed a shareholder vote to weigh Dish’s last minute counter bid. Read more »
Dish is upping its initial bid by 29 percent on the eve of a critical Clearwire shareholders vote. Sprint’s offer to take over Clearwire was already on shaky ground. Now it might collapse. Read more »
Sprint-SoftBank clears a big regulatory hurdle, but according to the WSJ, there are numerous national security strings attached, including a ban on Huawei gear from Sprint’s network. Read more »
Sprint has given into shareholder pressure and raised its bid for Clearwire by 14 percent. Clearwire immediately canceled today shareholder vote, rescheduling for next week. Read more »
Sprint buyout of U.S. Cellular in Chicago and St. Louis closed Friday, and it won’t keep its networks running for long. Customers can either trade in their U.S. Cellular devices with Sprint or look for a new carrier. Read more »
In a letter to shareholders, Clearwire argued that the Sprint’s proposed takeover represents the best deal for Clearwire’s shareholders despite Dish’s offer to invest in the WiMAX provider. Read more »
Electric car startup Fisker Automotive, along with its plug-in sports car, is turning out to be one of the worst venture capital bets of all time. We asked GigaOM readers a variety of questions about what they think will happen to Fisker and what they think will be the broader implications of and lessons learned from Fisker’s high-profile crash and burn. Here are the results. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The shareholder vote was the last step in a long chain of approvals necessary to cement the deal. On May 1 — just seven months after the companies announced their intentions — T-Mobile and MetroPCS will officially combine. Read more »
Sprint is juggling its two competing buyout offers. It’s appointed a special committee to evaluate Dish’s proposal on one hand, but it’s not delaying its wedding date with SoftBank on the other. Read more »
Softbank certainly has the money to counter Dish’s offer, but Dish has much more to offer than cash, namely valuable spectrum and a huge TV network. Read more »
MetroPCS has delayed the final shareholder vote necessarily to finalize its merger with T-Mobile USA. Fearing rejection, T-Mo owner DT is offering up a new deal with better terms. Read more »
Why would Google be interested in WhatsApp when it already has a bevy of peer-to-peer messaging and communications apps at its disposal? For the same reason Facebook bought Instagram. Read more »
Verizon has unsurprisingly scotched Tuesday’s rumor of a record-breaking takeover – in concert with rival carrier AT&T, no less – of Vodafone. Voda’s shares have dropped a couple percent in response. Read more »
The $245 billion deal would be the single largest M&A transaction in history, according to the Financial Times. But just as with any rumor about Vodafone and Verzion’s joint venture, there are reasons to be skeptical. Read more »
Oracle is loading up on telecom vendors that specialize in controlling and managing data and VoIP traffic as it traverses the network. Read more »
A week after clearing the Justice Department, the T-Mobile-MetroPCS merger gains the FCC stamp of approval without a peep of protest. Now the only thing standing in the deal’s way are Metro’s stockholders. Read more »
Federal antitrust lawyers signaled they have no problems with T-Mobile USA’s pending tie-up with MetroPCS. It’s a good sign for the deal as the DOJ has been actively scrutinizing telecom deals of late. Read more »
MetroPCS’s largest shareholder is now opposed to the merger. Opponents still don’t have the votes to derail it, but if more institutional shareholders join their cause, Metro and DT may be forced to alter the terms. Read more »
According to a regulatory filing, Sprint entertained four possible M&A deals in the last two years apart from Softbank. Dish and MetroPCS are obvious candidates, and the other two could have been T-Mobile and the cablecos. Read more »
In a filing with the SEC, Clearwire is making every indication it wants to be acquired by Sprint, but it also isn’t taking Dish Network’s counteroffer off the table. Read more »
Which companies and sectors were the biggest winners in tech acquisitions for 2012? A new report from CB Insights breaks down where trends in M&A for 2012 among private tech companies acquired during the year. Read more »
The Justice Department is raising security questions over the Sprint-Softbank deal, and has asked the FCC to defer any action on the deal until it and other government agencies complete their review. Read more »
Barnes & Noble and Microsoft welcome Pearson to the Nook Media table as the education publisher lays down $89.5 to help secure distribution. But Nook is already set to miss targets set during its recent spin-out. Read more at paidContent »
With investment souring on consumer-focused companies, 2013 will be more about the social enterprise, with a different set of companies driving innovation and perhaps a little disruption. Look for the likes of Salesforce.com, Jive Software, and other enterprise players to make headlines in the new year. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A world of difference separates the Sprint Dan Hesse took over on Dec. 17, 2007 and Sprint today. On his fifth anniversary as CEO, Hesse talks with GigaOM about how Sprint emerged from its dark days and how AT&T-Mo eventually helped shape Sprint’s identity. Read more »
If Sprint really wants to buy Clearwire, why did it low-ball its offer, and why is Softbank reportedly choking off Sprint’s bargaining power? Analyst Tim Farrar thinks there is more to this deal, and many other related ones, than meet the eye. Read more »
The digital media sector is finally maturng. Dan Ramsden, founder of CoRise, predicts some of the forms that that maturation will take. Read more »
AT&T isn’t against Softbank taking over Sprint. Ma Bell just wants to get something out of the deal, according to Public Knowledge’s Harold Feld. Also Sprint’s buying a majority stake in Clearwire doesn’t give it the direct control of the 4G operator that we thought. Read more »
The usual suspects Amazon and VMware made significant announcements in cloud in the third quarter, while Hadoop remained the talk of the town in big data. Emerging trends in software-defined networking and flash storage stirred up lots of M&A and venture investment in the quarter. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Business card printer and east London tech darling Moo.com acquires web personal landing page Flavors.me to bolster its digital profile. Read more »
One of the recent crop of mobile personalised news aggregators is being acquired by an RSS advertising company looking to take its ads in to smartphones. Read more at paidContent »
