DISH Network (DISH) plans to offer $2.5 billion in senior notes for the purposes of financing a portion of the cash consideration of its merger proposal with Sprint Nextel (S), the company announced today.
DISH says the proceeds from the offering will be placed in an escrow account and the company will redeem the notes if the proposed transaction with Sprint fails. DISH did not release specific terms for the notes.
DISH in April offered a merger deal to Sprint valued at $25.5 billion. This offer is in competition with an offer for part of Sprint made by SoftBank.
DISH's latest appeal for funds may be in response to recent reports that SoftBank is allegedly attempting to dissuade investment banks from financing DISH's Sprint purchase by threatening to keep them from underwriting any part of the anticipated Alibaba IPO. SoftBank owns one-third of Alibaba.
A shareholder vote on whether Sprint should accept SoftBank's offer to buy 70% of the company will be held on June 12.
