Dish Network Wants to Buy Sprint

Offers $25.5 billion

DISH Network said Monday that it wants to buy Sprint Nextel for $25.5 billion, topping a $20 billion merger proposal already on the table from Japan's Softbank.

Attesting to the attractive value of wireless airwaves, or spectrum, that Sprint holds and the anticipated growth of mobile data usage in the U.S., DISH is raising the value of Sprint six months after the Japanese wireless carrier submitted its surprising bid to enter the U.S. market.