Dish Network would be a poor match for Sprint Nextel, says SoftBank
Masayoshi Son, the Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Corp has said that rival bidder, Dish Network Corp would be a poor match for telecom major, Sprint Nextel Corp.
"It doesn't help to bring a football player to a baseball team. There's no synergy between satellite and mobile," Son said.
SoftBank chief was in New York for meetings with Sprint investors as part of the effort to garner support for is $20.1 billion bid for the company. Sprint, which is the third largest telecom service provider in the US, had agreed to the bid from SoftBank but Dish launched an alternative bid valued at $25.5 billion in the previous month.
Son affirmed that SoftBank's bid offers more tangible cost benefits to the company as the two would be able to combine their purchases of wireless equipment and handsets. SoftBank claimed this week that the deal would allow the companies to save more than $2 billion a year on average from 2014 to 2017, and $3 billion annually after that period due to combined purchases. It also claimed that the combined entity would be able to reduce Sprint's capital spending by 32 per cent to 36 per cent.