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Dish Network rumored to have bought Clearwire's $400 million debt in secret transaction

We're not in the habit of entering the dry world of corporate debt notes, but Sprint's latest financial release might disguise a juicy bit of news. There's a rumor in the business press that Dish Network might have bought around $400 million of Clearwire's debt -- helping relieve the pressure on Sprint, which has been keeping its subsidiary alive on handouts. Unsurprisingly, no-one's commenting on the rumors, although Dish CEO Joseph Clayton did say he was open to a partnership (or acquisition) with Sprint / Clearwire late last year. If true, it could signal that it's getting ready for a fight against AT&T -- or maybe it just wanted to throw Dan Hesse a bone.

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Sprint Announces Senior Notes Offering

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), August 09, 2012 - Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) announced today that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of notes due 2020 and notes due 2022.

Sprint intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things, redemptions or service requirements of outstanding debt, network expansion and modernization and potential funding of Clearwire Corporation and its subsidiary Clearwire Communications LLC.

The joint book-running managers for the offering are J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Barclays Capital Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. These securities are being offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus describing the terms of the offering have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You may obtain a preliminary prospectus supplement and prospectus by visiting EDGAR on the SEC website at http://www.sec.gov or by contacting J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at Attn.: HY Syndicate, 383 Madison Avenue, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10179, or by calling collect 1-212-834-4533; Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. at Attn.: Prospectus Group, 60 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005-2836, or by calling toll free 1-800-503-4611 or by emailing prospectus.CPDG@db.com; Barclays Capital Inc. at c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by calling toll free 1-888-603-5847 or by emailing barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com; Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated at Attn.: Prospectus Department, 222 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10038, by calling toll free 1-800-294-1322 or by emailing dg.prospectus_requests@baml.com; Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at Attn.: Citigroup Prospectus Delivery Department, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220, or by calling toll free 1-800-831-9146 or by emailing batprospectusdept@citi.com; or Goldman, Sachs & Co. at Attn.: Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, or by calling 1-212-902-1171.