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Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) Chairman Charlie Ergen said the company would consider a partnership with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), which Dish is challenging with a rival bid for Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR).
On Dish's fourth-quarter earnings conference call yesterday, Ergen said he thought Dish's unsolicited $3.30 per share offer for 40 MHz of spectrum and a commercial agreement with Clearwire is "clearly a better deal than what Sprint has offered," which is $2.97 per share for control of the 50 percent of Clearwire it does not already own. Clearwire's board has said it is reviewing the Dish offer but still recommends the one from Sprint.
"If that transaction [Dish's offer to Clearwire] went through, Sprint's your most likely partner," Ergen said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "The reverse of that is, is that, that offer is not accepted or there's a bidding war for Clearwire, right? And were we to lose that bidding war or if we were not to prevail for our offer for Clearwire, then Sprint's probably not a likely partner."
Ergen also said Dish will need to see how the bids play...