Sprint Now Three-Quarters Japanese-Owned After Merger Closing

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest mergers in Q2 2013.**

One day after closing its acquisition of spectrum-rich Clearwire, 72 percent of Sprint is now owned by SoftBank of Japan.

The two companies completed their merger on Wednesday, a deal that gives $16.6 billion to Sprint stockholders and an aggregate $5 billion of new capital (nearly 40 percent of that at closing) to bolster Sprint’s balance sheet. That breaks down to $7.65 per share in cash, with the remaining shares converted into shares of a new, publicly traded Sprint Corp.

Dan Hesse remains the CEO of Sprint and will serve on the board of directors. The company’s headquarters will stay in Overland Park, Kan.

SoftBank had to fend off a challenge from DISH Network, the satellite operator, which had hoped to buy Sprint and get into the wireless game itself. The cash infusion from SoftBank is helping Sprint to pay for Clearwire and to further build out its LTE network nationwide.

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