LyrArc Article Gist
Sprint's agreement with Softbank to sell a 70% stake to Softbank for $20.1 billion. Sprint has lagged behind Verizon and At&T in offering Long Term Evolution, or LTE, data service. It is struggling with $21 billion in debt and needs the additional investment to support investment on the next generation technologies. Softbank was working on reducing debt estimated at $13 billion and building its LTE network in Japan. The deal for Sprint Nextel therefore comes as a surprise with the additional debt Softbank is taking on, even though Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank, is known for taking on large deals. Softbank shares declined 17% after the first information came out and have dropped an additional 5%. Sprint shares were up 14%.