SoftBank head to meet Sprint shareholders in U.S

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Corp's president said he will go to the United States on Tuesday to meet Sprint Nextel Corp's major shareholders to seek support for the Japanese company's takeover bid.

SoftBank's billionaire founder and president Masayoshi Son, who proposed a $20 billion deal for a 70 percent stake in the U.S. wireless carrier, faces a challenge from Dish Network, a U.S. satellite TV provider, which is offering $25.5 billion in a rival bid.

Two big Sprint shareholders, Paulson & Co and Omega Advisors, have publicly said the Dish offer looks better than SoftBank's.

While Dish's offer would provide more cash upfront to shareholders, Son argued that it would not be good for the company as it would require Sprint to take on a heavy debt load. He also promises a July 1 close for the deal and warned that Dish regulatory approval may not come until 2014.

One big Sprint investor who asked not to be named said they were happy to meet with Mr. Son while he is in the United States but that they were hoping to convince him to raise his bid.

"If Mr, Son wants to own Sprint he will have to raise his bid," said the person from a top 25 Sprint shareholder who did not want to be quoted by name ahead of the meeting.

Sprint shares have risen about 16 percent since Dish made its rival offer on April 15 as investors have been betting that the offer will result in a bidding war.

Sprint closed at $7.20 per share on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

SoftBank's Son, speaking to reporters at an event unveiling SoftBank's latest smartphones and mobile gadgets, dismissed suggestions from Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen last week that the Dish deal would be good for U.S. jobs, saying Americans would continue to be employed under a Softbank deal.

"The workers who are climbing Sprint's base stations are Americans and we will not be sending anyone from Japan to do that at all," said Son, adding that Sprint's towers would continue to be managed by its own employees as well as workers from telecom equipment vendors Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

Son also said SoftBank offered more expertise than Dish in the latest mobile technology.

"They have never been in mobile before and that will be their biggest hurdle," said Son. He said SoftBank had been at the vanguard of introducing fourth-generation (4G) TD-LTE mobile broadband services in Japan and could help Sprint to upgrade its U.S. network.

TD-LTE is one of the two key types of 4G LTE (long-term evolution) technologies that have been adopted by global carriers and promises faster speeds for mobile wireless.

"The difference here is that SoftBank has the network architecture, that SoftBank has the additional knowhow to bring to Sprint as the sole commercial provider of TD-LTE," he said.

In an interview with USA Today last week, Ergen said Dish's offer would protect American jobs and give the U.S. firm an operational edge over SoftBank as they compete for Sprint.

Son said on Tuesday that he will meet Sprint management as well as its major institutional shareholders to discuss the specific merits of SoftBank's offer for the U.S. company. He gave no further details.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Miral Fahmy, Edmund Klamann and Alden Bentley)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/softbank-president-says-meet-sprint-shareholders-u-063004256.html

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