Instant View: Dish Network bids $25.5 billion for Sprint Nextel

Dish Network Corp on Monday offered to buy Sprint Nextel Corp for $25.5 billion in cash and stock, challenging Japan's SoftBank Corp for the No.3 U.S. wireless service provider.

Sprint shares jumped about 13 percent before the U.S. market open on Monday.

COMMENTARY

NICK BROWN, TELECOM ANALYST, ESPIRITO SANTO INVESTMENT BANK

"We believe Dish has been trying to get into mobile for a while. There have been noises that it was interested in Metro and T-Mobile as well. The offer represents roughly five times Sprint's 2013 EBITDA based on consensus numbers. The offer from Dish appears credible since it has the financing lined up and can justify a higher price than Softbank's offer because of the synergies with its existing operations in the US."

(Reporting by Leila Abboud in Paris; Compiled by Tiffany Wu)