Clearwire urges shareholder to take Dish offer

US broadband firm Clearwire urged its shareholders to accept a takeover offer from satellite communications giant Dish Network over another from wireless carrier Sprint. Clearwire is at the heart of a high-stakes battle for a chunk in the lucrative US wireless market pitting Dish against Japan's SoftBank to take over Sprint Nextel. Dish and Sprint are seeking control over heavily indebted Clearwire's large array of wireless services. Sprint wants Clearwire's spectrum and broadband WiMax network, which is becoming more valuable with the surge of mobile Internet use. Dish is seeking Clearwire's spectrum as part of an effort to build a company that could deliver a fully integrated, nationwide bundle of video, television, broadband Internet and voice services. "Sprint continues to have every intention of enforcing its governance rights," it said, adding that it would review filings related to Clearwire's decision before determining its next steps. "All commercial agreements, including network and customer agreements, will be honored and enforced as it regards our ongoing relationship with Clearwire." Sprint and Dish have raised their offers in recent months to buy up Clearwire. Dish offered $4.40 per share in cash in late May, which would give Clearwire a market value of $3.1 billion. Sprint's last offer was for $3.40 per share for the 50 percent of Clearwire it does not already own. Clearwire urged shareholders to accept Dish's tender offer based on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of independent directors not affiliated with Sprint, and asked them to vote against Sprint's offer. The company said it would postpone a June 13 shareholder vote on Sprint's offer until June 24. Dish's bid was originally set to expire on June 28, but the firm said it would extend the deadline to July 2. It also indicated that shareholders had tendered about 245,411 shares of Clearwire common stock as of Tuesday. Meanwhile, SoftBank has vowed to raise its bid for Sprint to $21.6 billion for 78 percent of the company, against Dish's $25.5 billion offer.