Sprint OKs $21.6B takeover offer from Japanese vendor

Sprint Nextel Corp. shareholders easily approved the company's $21.6 billion deal with SoftBank Corp. at a special meeting Tuesday in Overland Park, Kan.

About 80 percent of the shares were voted in favor of the SoftBank deal, Sprint said Tuesday morning.

The approval comes after months of deal making and bid battling. It also leaves only one hurdle for Japan's third-largest wireless company to gain 78 percent ownership of America's No. 3 wireless carrier.

Approval from the Federal Communications Commission is expected soon and would clear the way for the companies to complete their deal.

SoftBank's deal will leave Sprint a separate company with its headquarters and top managers in Kansas City and its shares on Wall Street. It also will deliver money, experience and expertise from a profitable wireless company that has managed to grow in the face of larger rivals.

By combining their interests, Sprint and SoftBank hope to turn Sprint into a stronger competitor for Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Sprint and SoftBank's plans rely heavily on valuable wireless spectrum controlled by Clearwire Corp. Spectrum are the licensed airwaves that carry video, downloads and other data-heavy activity of smartphone customers.