Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Nextel WIP Corp. subsidiary filed its second lawsuit in as many weeks against network affiliate Nextel Partners Inc., part of its ongoing attempts to set a price for Sprint Nextel’s expected acquisition of Nextel Partners.
The lawsuit seeks access to Nextel Partners’ financial records and other documents related to how Nextel Partners determined its forecasts for future operations in recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings and the impact those numbers have had on determining its market value.
Sprint Nextel has maintained that a portion of Nextel Partners’ nearly 40-percent stock-price increase since December is related to Sprint Corp.’s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc., which closed in early August. Nextel Partners claimed the stock-price increase is due to its strong operational performance during the past several quarters.
“We believe that Nextel’s second lawsuit in less than two weeks has no merit,” Nextel Partners said in a statement. “We will respond in due course.”
Nextel Partners’ shareholders are set to vote Oct. 24 whether to exercise the carrier’s put option, which would require Sprint Nextel to acquire the remaining 68 percent of Nextel Partners it currently does not own. If triggered, an appraisal process will determine the “fair market value” of Nextel Partners and is expected to be completed by early February.
The lawsuit filed last week in Delaware Chancery Court claimed that Nextel Partners misrepresented the way in which a fair market value for the carrier should be set. The litigation also seeks to bar Nextel Partners from releasing results of the initial appraisal because that could influence the findings of a third appraiser.
