SoftBank has been in talks with Sprint to acquire the US carrier with an offer of $20.1 billion. That deal would close on July 1, but it won’t happen if Sprint accepts Dish’s counter offer of $25.5 billion. And now we have a war of words between the two bidders.

Both SoftBank and Dish have created their own websites regarding the merger, while the Japanese carrier funded a study to question the claimed benefits of a Dish acquisition of Sprint.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen earlier said, “Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined Dish/Sprint with a significantly enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal“.

But these benefits are “unsubstantiated and unrealistic“, according to the SoftBank-funded study. Industry expert Scott C. Chandler writes, “Dish’s $37 billion estimate of the NPV (net present value) of total synergies created in the proposed Dish/Sprint merger is unusually high and there are multiple reasons to believe that Dish’s projections are neither achievable nor credible“. He is also pointing to the fact that Dish and Sprint are “two dissimilar companies” operating in “different sectors“, which would make the claimed synergies hard to achieve.

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, who is to meet with Sprint’s major shareholders this week, earlier said that his company’s experience with TD-LTE would help improve Sprint’s LTE efforts in the US. He has also referred to Dish’s bid as “incomplete and illusory“.

Ergen slammed back: “We are an American company and the modernization of Sprint’s network will have to be done from the US. 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“.

Regarding SoftBank’s study, Dish says, “The study was paid for by SoftBank and lacks the credibility that comes from third-party objectivity. We remain confident Sprint shareholders are going to accept the offer from the company that brings the most to the table, including the best price and strategic plan going forward. Dish is offering more money, greater synergies, and we’re bringing over $10 billion of spectrum“.

Meanwhile, regarding another bid, we reported earlier about Verizon’s plans to buy out Vodafone with a $100 billion bid to take full control over Big Red. But it appears like that bid could reach up to $130 billion.

[Source]

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U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan will be getting a tech upgrade later this month as QinetiQ unrolls its Individual Gunshot Detectors (IDG). The device is worn on the shoulder and contains four acoustic sensors that act as an acoustic radar to locate the point of origin of enemy fire.

The IGD has attached to a small screen mounted on the body armour, which displays the direction and distance towards a fired shot.

13,000 of the devices will be released to the U.S. military, with 1500 strategically dispersed among platoons and squads in different areas and locales every month for 12 months. Though the units are going to be spread thinly among soldiers in the coming months, the military plans to incorporate the technology into their Land Warrior and Nett Warrior systems in the future. In that context, the acoustic sensor will display data on a helmet-mounted display, and networks between soldiers will allow each member of a squadron to see the location of a shooter detected by one sensor.

“The next thing we want to do is try to integrate this capability with other capabilities,” says Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier. ”For example, we have Land Warrior deployed in Afghanistan and we’re going to have Nett Warrior coming into the force. How about, if you get shot at, not only do I know where that came from, but others know where it came from because I can network that capability.”

The U.S. Government ordered $9.95 million worth of the IGD devices in 2008, meaning soldiers already in the field will undoubtedly be glad to hear they’re finally arriving.

The post Soldiers in Afghanistan Will Be First to Receive Enemy Gunshot Radar appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Boeing Phantom Eye hydrogen-powered unmanned bomber plane

Capable of flying at 65,000 feet for four days straight with its 150 foot wingspan and 450 pound payload, the Phantom Eye will surely keep any neighboring infidels in check. Powering the aircraft are dual 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each, although not stealthy, the cruising speed of approximately 150 knots is enough to conduct surveillance or just drop a few bombs on the “enemy.”

Expect Boeing’s Phantom Eye to visit NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California for typical ground and taxi tests in preparation for its lift off in early 2011.

[Via Boeing]

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