Dish Offers Up $25.5B to Buy Sprint

Dish Network wants to buy Sprint Nextel for $25.5 billion, the satellite TV company publicly declared today, in what the Wall Street Journal calls Dish's "most audacious attempt yet" to jump into the wireless business. The bid is unsolicited, which makes sense, given that Sprint already has a deal in place to be acquired by Japan's SoftBank. But Dish says its deal trounces SoftBank's complicated $20.1 billion offer.

"Sprint is in play," Dish's chairman says. "We think we've made an offer that's much more compelling." Dish has been dipping its toes into telecom over the past year, acquiring spectrum and earning regulator approval for land-based mobile phone service.