SoftBank Corp.'s 9984.TO +1.83% chief executive took a moment to bask in the glow of his all-but-certain acquisition of both Sprint Nextel Corp. S -1.20% and its prized asset Clearwire, telling investors he will now try to create the world's largest company.
"Everyone accused me of being full of hot air when I promised I would achieve trillions of yen in sales...They laughed when I said unapologetically in the year we made our biggest loss that I would soon earn trillions of yen in profits," Masayoshi Son said at annual meeting of shareholders. "I now say, we will become the world's biggest company—by all measures, whether by sales, profit, or market cap."
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Softbank President Masayoshi Son, here presenting his company's case for Sprint in April, Friday reveled in all-but-certain victory.
After weeks of sparring with Dish Network Corp. DISH +3.55% over both Sprint and Clearwire assets, the billionaire CEO at times seemed to turn the typically staid annual shareholders' meeting into a celebratory event.
SoftBank's shares were up 1.8%, shaking off the morning's loss from before the conclusion of the shareholder meeting.
SoftBank, which has stakes in companies that include Yahoo Japan Corp., 4689.TO 0.00% Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Ustream Inc., will find turning around struggling Sprint a far smaller challenge than that of turning around Vodafone's VOD.LN -1.07% Japan operations, Mr. Son said in his presentation.
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Unlike Vodafone's Japan operations, acquired in 2006, he noted that Sprint has a large lineup of smartphones, high-speed networks, and its operating profit has already bottomed out. The scale and buying power of SoftBank and Sprint combined will generate cost savings of about $2 billion to $3 billion a year in the first three years after the deal is expected to close in July, he said.
In the global mobile market, SoftBank and Sprint together have claim to the No. 3 slot in terms of subscribers. Sprint shareholders are slated to vote on Tuesday on SoftBank's offer.
SoftBank raised its bid for Sprint to $21.6 billion last week to fight a $25.5 billion counteroffer from Dish, after which Dish said it would not make another offer for Sprint.
On Thursday, Sprint raised its bid for the shares it does not already own in Clearwire, owner of wireless spectrum that is key to expanding Sprint's high speed network, to $5 a share.
The new offer, which values Clearwire at about $14 billion, is 47% higher than Sprint's last proposal. It is also higher than rival Dish's most recent bid of $4.40 a share, prompting key shareholders and Clearwire's board to express their support of Sprint's bid over Dish's.
Sprint contends it now has the support of shareholders who own about 45% of the non-Sprint shares. It needs more than 50% to win.
As Dish's overtures to both Sprint and Clearwire escalated, Mr. Son acknowledged that he had made serious preparations to acquire No. 4 carrier T-Mobile US Inc., TMUS -0.87% 74%-owned by Deutsche Telekom DTE.XE -0.42% AG.
"We were faced with extremely difficult problem, since Dish could conceivably disrupt our plans," Mr. Son said, commenting on Clearwire board's decision to favor Sprint. "Today is a good day."
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