Skip to main content

Sprint is the prettiest girl at the dance: Dish and SoftBank hurl insults at one another

Dish Network wants to buy Sprint No thanks
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We recently reported that Dish Network had outbid Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank to purchase the controlling stake of Sprint, but now, it seems the bidding war has become a a little heated.

As MobileBurn reports, at a recent press conference, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son called Dish’s offer “incomplete and illusory.” Perhaps more shockingly, he called Dish CEO Charlie Ergen an “amateur to our mobile industry.”  

Ergen responded that his company didn’t have experience in the satellite industry before it joined either, and was doing just fine.

“We’re offering a higher price,” argued Ergen. “That’s just math. We are an American company, and the modernization of Sprint’s network will have to be done from the U.S. You have to climb the towers here, and you’ll have to have U.S. employees who speak English. Operations command control will be in America. That’s good for jobs. It doesn’t mean that the other guys are bad. It’s just that we have an advantage.”  

The claim that non-English speaking employees would be operating everything was unsubstantiated. Non-english speaking employees could be a better fit to run some of Sprint’s operations, for all we know. His words could be interpreted a number of ways. One could take it to mean that SoftBank wouldn’t have any English-speaking employees, or at least, not enough to successfully run a company with such a high percentage of the U.S. mobile market share. It’s a somewhat offensive statement no matter how you slice it.

Sprint has already formed a committee to discuss Dish’s proposal, which will decide who it wants to take to the spring prom.

Saul Berenbaum
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saul Berenbaum has been writing film and gaming reviews since college. Recently, he contributed to HardcoreDroid. Now he…
Visible just made its unlimited 5G plan better than ever
Visible wireless phones and plans featured

Digital wireless service provider Visible has announced upgrades to its premium Visible+ phone plan. The highlight is a new Global Pass feature that allows Visible customers to use their phones in 140 countries worldwide.

The Visible Global Pass offers unlimited talk and text services, along with 2GB of high-speed data, for a flat rate of $10 per day. Visible+ members can also enjoy a free Global Pass usage day every month. The activation process can be done through the Visible app.

Read more
The OnePlus Watch 2 is the Wear OS smartwatch I’ve been waiting for
Person wearing OnePlus Watch 2 with a green strap on their left wrist.

The OnePlus Watch 2 -- the company's first Wear OS watch -- has entered a market that Samsung dominates. However, OnePlus' popularity as a smartphone brand can be expected to bring small, yet meaningful changes that benefit not only OnePlus users, but all of the Wear OS segment in general.

For almost a decade, Samsung and Apple have predominantly been the default options if you want a smartwatch that is actually useful and goes beyond flashy features. With Samsung shifting gears and migrating from its own Tizen OS to the (relatively) more universal Wear OS platform and Google releasing its own Pixel Watch after struggling with an identity crisis in the smartwatch world, the platform has much more traction than it did a few years ago. As OnePlus carves its way into the segment, it has the opportunity to entice people who don't wish to live within Samsung's limitations when using a Galaxy Watch with another brand's phone.

Read more
Buying an iPad Mini today? You need to know about this deal
The Apple Pencil attaches to the iPad mini magnetically.

If you've had an eye on iPad deals for the latest model of the Apple iPad Mini for a while now, this may be the offer that you've been waiting for -- a $100 discount from Best Buy on the tablet's Wi-Fi, 64GB model, slashing its price to $400 from $500. It's still pretty popular years after its release, so we don't expect stocks of the device for this sale to last long. If you're thinking about taking advantage of this bargain, you better push through with your purchase as soon as possible to make sure that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the Apple iPad Mini 2021
The latest generation of the Apple iPad Mini was released in 2021, but it's still featured in our roundup of the best iPads because it's the model that you should buy if you want a smaller and more compact version of Apple's tablets. Its 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display is smaller than the screens of its peers, but it's still big enough to enjoy watching streaming shows and browsing websites, while allowing you to use the device with one hand. Unlike its predecessor, there's no Home button, so the Touch ID sensor is instead built into the power button at the side of the Apple iPad Mini 2021.

Read more