Clearwire said it's reviewing a revised bid by Dish Network for at least 25 percent of its stock. Thentarget had not yet confirmed at our deadline whether it would postpone a shareholder vote scheduled fornFriday on rival bidder Sprint Nextel’s offer to buy out the company. A Clearwire special committee “hasnnot made any determination to change its recommendation of the current Sprint transaction,” the companynsaid in a statement. Dish made a tender offer of $4.40 per share for the Clearwire stock Wednesday. Thenoffer expires June 28 unless it's extended (http://bit.ly/18wWzqf). Dish said its revised offer is 29 percentnhigher than the initial offer of $3.30 per share it made in early January, and a full dollar higher than SprintnNextel’s "best and final offer" of $3.40 per share for the minority share of the company it doesn’t alreadynown. Dish’s bid also includes up to $800 million in interim financing for Clearwire. Sprint is “reviewingnDish's actions both as to our interest in Clearwire and Dish's proposal to acquire Sprint,” a spokesmannsaid. Dish has also made a counteroffer for control of Sprint, and continued to argue Wednesday that anpurchase of the carrier by rival bidder SoftBank would be a national security risk. Crest Financial, Clearwire’snlargest minority shareholder, urged Clearwire’s board Thursday to reverse its earlier recommendationnof Sprint’s bid in light of Dish’s revised offer and pursue an “open and competitive bidding process.”nClearwire’s board “has a fiduciary obligation to give full consideration to Dish's offer, which is clearlynactionable, and any other eventual offers that would trump the Dish offer,” said David Schumacher,nCrest’s general counsel, in a letter to Clearwire (http://on.mktw.net/12RPWst). Dish’s revised bidn“seriously complicates Sprint’s bid for Clearwire,” and Clearwire’s minority shareholders would likely cheer the news because of concerns about Sprint’s offer, New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplinnwrote investors Thursday. Dish is in a “difficult spot strategically” given the looming buildout deadlinesnon its spectrum, which the FCC extended through a terrestrial waiver in December, wrote Stifel Nicolaus'snChristopher King. “It needs a wireless partner, and it needs one quickly — despite the very slow organicngrowth in the industry."
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