OREANDA-NEWS. The Federal Communications Commission approved a three-way deal in which Japan's SoftBank Corp. is acquiring control of Sprint Nextel Corp., which in turn is buying Clearwire Corp., marking the last step before the transactions' close.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier, is selling a 78% stake to SoftBank for USD 21.6 billion.

The deal provides money for the carrier to expand its wireless network and make a run at its much larger competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. Meanwhile, Sprint is acquiring the half of Clearwire that it doesn't already own in a deal valuing the smaller mobile broadband provider at about USD 14 billion.

The three companies involved in the deals issued a joint statement that applauded the FCC's approval.

The closure of the transactions, expected later this month, marks the end of a long journey that began with SoftBank's agreement with Sprint in October and a separate deal between Sprint and Clearwire in December. But Dish Network Corp. attempted to disrupt both transactions by making competing offers and arguing against the combinations with regulators.

U.S. antitrust and national-security regulators already had cleared the transaction, which faced extra hurdles because it involved foreign ownership of a major U.S. telecommunications company.