Sprint Nextel Corp and Japan’s SoftBank Corp said Wednesday they had reached a national security agreement with U.S. authorities, overcoming a major hurdle for the Japanese company’s $20.1 billion bid to control the wireless carrier.
Even with that approval, there are still a number of regulatory, congressional and investor hurdles facing SoftBank before it can close on its plan to break into the U.S. market.
The companies said they had received notice from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States that it had completed its national security review of the proposed deal and there were no unresolved issues.
The approval was a blow to Douglas County-based Dish Network, which launched an unsolicited $25 billion offer for Sprint in April.
Dish has mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign, trying to convince Washington decision-makers that foreign ownership of Sprint posed threats to U.S. national security.
On paper, all that stands in SoftBank’s way now is approval from the government’s “Team Telecom” security panel, the Federal Communications Commission and Sprint shareholders.
