Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged regulators to “take a...
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged regulators to “take a very careful look” at SoftBank’s proposed purchase of Sprint Nextel, in a letter to FCC Acting Chairman Mignon Clyburn and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. “I am concerned that critical parts of…
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Sprint’s future network may ... become dependent on unsecure Chinese equipment and vulnerable to interference,” said Schumer. SoftBank “is a Japanese company with alleged ties to China, the country that is currently the leading source of cyber breaches,” said the letter sent Friday. “SoftBank’s Japanese wireless network reportedly relies heavily on Chinese equipment manufacturers with ties to the Chinese government” and “SoftBank was apparently affiliated with a company that admitted to bribing Chinese officials in order to procure telecommunications contracts,” the letter said. SoftBank is negotiating with government agencies that are reviewing SoftBank’s $20.1 billion bid to buy 70 percent ownership of Sprint, said a Sprint SEC filing earlier this month (http://1.usa.gov/12qWkFv). SoftBank continues to work with the FCC, Department of Justice and the Treasury Department-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) to complete those agencies’ review of the deal, and believes it will be able to close the deal as expected on July 1, a SoftBank spokesman said Thursday (CD May 24 p14). Dish Network said its counterbid for control of Sprint will deliver “nearly all the key benefits” of SoftBank’s proposed bid, and exceeds SoftBank’s bid in some areas. Dish’s $25.5 billion bid itself is superior to SoftBank’s $20.1 billion because it offers Sprint shareholders more stock and cash, Dish said. A Dish-Sprint combination would also be better able to challenge AT&T and Verizon Wireless than SoftBank-Sprint because Dish brings 45 MHz of low- and mid-band spectrum to the deal, Dish said. It said SoftBank holds no U.S. spectrum licenses. Dish/Sprint would also be better for national security given SoftBank’s ties to Chinese companies like telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, Dish said (http://bit.ly/ZhWOm1). Dish has repeatedly voiced concerns about the national security implications of SoftBank’s bid in recent days (CD May 21 p9). Dish’s news release Thursday came in response to SoftBank’s posting of a list of reasons its purchase of Sprint would bring “significant benefits” to the U.S. SoftBank said those reasons include the ability to “transform” the U.S. wireless market through more vibrant national wireless carrier competition (http://bit.ly/11fQtlc).