Softbank says its deal is better for Sprint than Dish’s, expects to finalize by July

Softbank remains unfazed by Dish’s higher competing offer to acquire Sprint — and it still expects its initial deal with Sprint to go through in a few months.

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Yesterday Dish announced that it’s offering Sprint $25.5 billion to purchase Sprint, $5 billion higher than Softbank’s offer to purchase a majority interest in the carrier. Undaunted, Softbank shot back last night with a statement:

SoftBank believes that the agreed terms of our transaction with Sprint offer Sprint shareholders superior short and long term benefits to Dish’s highly conditional preliminary proposal. The SoftBank-Sprint transaction is in the advanced stages of receiving the necessary approvals, and we expect to consummate the transaction on July 1, 2013.

I suppose it would have been more surprising if Softbank said anything else. Investors were less assured in the Japanese carrier’s ability to purchase Sprint following Dish’s offer — its stock fell as much as 9.3 percent in Tokyo today, DealBook reports.

At this point, we’ll just have to wait and see what Sprint decides. With Softbank, it will have an experienced carrier as a majority stakeholder, who will also let Sprint continue to exist as an independent, publicly traded company. Dish’s deal would involve a complete merger and a big bet on the satellite TV company’s vision of offering a variety of  services to compete with cable companies.

Photo: Miki Yoshihito/Flickr