After DISH Network's (DISH) surprise counteroffer to Sprint Nextel's (S) bid for Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) last week, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services took another look at Sprint's and Clearwire's corporate credit ratings and decided to keep them on "CreditWach with positive implications."
S&P said all of Sprint's ratings, including its B+ corporate rating will "remain on CreditWatch with positive implications," according to the S&P announcement.
S&P placed Sprint on CreditWatch in mid-October after the mobile operator announced it was negotiating a buyout deal with Japanese telecom SoftBank. Those talks eventually turned into an agreement to sell 70% of Sprint to SoftBank for $20.1 billion.
All of Clearwire's ratings, along with its corporate crediting rating of CCC, will also stay on S&P's CreditWatch, also with "positive implications."
S&P's original CreditWatch for Clearwire was announced after Sprint signed an agreement in mid-December to buy the 49% of Clearwire it did not already control.
Despite DISH's offer to buy some Clearwire stock at a price 11% higher than that of Sprint's offer, S&P said there were "significant hurdles for DISH to overcome in its bid for Clearwire."
Clearwire has said it is considering the bid; Sprint has said it is an inferior bid and should not be allowed to proceed.
