The strategy appears to be directed at both Congress and the U.S. population in general, and is reminiscent of similar campaigns that derailed the proposed 2005 acquisition of Unocal by China’s Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) and the attempt in 2006 by Dubai Ports World to acquire the management of six major U.S. ports. Both acquisitions were scuttled when issues of national interest and security were raised.

Dish Network appears to be launching a counterattack to a reported threat by Softbank to withhold a piece of the underwriting of the planned IPO of China’s Alibaba e-commerce website from any bank that offers to help fund Dish Network’s offer for Sprint. Softbank owns a one-third interest in Alibaba.

The new Dish Network website also conjures a threat from the use of Chinese-made network equipment to U.S. national security. In February 2011, the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) forced China’s Huawei Technologies to unwind its $2 million acquisition of bankrupt U.S. networking startup 3Leaf Systems.

It is hard to fault Dish Network for running out a strategic attack that has proved successful on at least three other occasions. The company’s arguments against an acquisition of Sprint by Softbank fit easily into the mold carved out by others. The one significant difference is that Softbank is based in Japan, one of the U.S.’s staunchest allies. It will be a lot harder to persuade Congress — and CFIUS — that Softbank poses a serious threat to U.S. national security.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) has tendered a competing offer for Clearwire at $3.30 a share.

Our biggest question is whether many of the key Clearwire shareholders will agree that the Sprint bid offers enough of a premium. Sprint’s prior buyout price was $2.97 per share and today’s offer is a 14% premium on top of that. At some point, it should be addressed that Clearwire shares had broken under the $1.00 mark before the Sprint-Softbank merger broke. It also should be pointed out that the new offer is a 162% premium to Clearwire’s closing share price the day before the Sprint-SoftBank discussions were first confirmed.

Clearwire dissidents may want to take note here. Sprint said, “The offer represents Sprint’s best and final offer.” The revised offer has been submitted to the Clearwire board of directors and is subject to its formal approval. Sprint even went on to say that Clearwire has received commitments from Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Bright House Networks. These companies collectively own about 26% of Clearwire’s shares not affiliated with Sprint and they are in support of the transaction.

Shares of Clearwire were halted and closed at $3.26 yesterday ahead of what was going to be a revised offer. Shares were up 6% at $3.46 before the halt against a 52-week range of $0.83 to $3.49.

A successful vote to split the chairman and CEO jobs at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) could still prompt Jamie Dimon’s departure. (Reuters)

Congress presses Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) on how little it pays in taxes. (Reuters)

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) may buy the spectrum of LightSquared. (Reuters)

The U.S. government says Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been given a security clearance that will allow it to do business with federal agencies. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) sells all of its shares in China’s ICBC. (Reuters)

Mutual funds become more aggressive about high director pay. (WSJ)

J.P. Morgan likely will change the number of its board members no matter how many are reelected. (WSJ)

Stringent work rules may make it hard for U.S. companies to get the layoffs they need to complete turnarounds. (WSJ)

A Chinese firm that makes large investments overseas sets up a U.S. office to focus on private equity and real estate. (WSJ)

More reports about Apple supplier Foxconn indicate that workers continue to commit suicide. (NYT)

Softbank approves the ability for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) to share data with possible buyer Dish Network. (FT)

A huge corn planting may undermine prices. (FT)

Today Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) offered $2 billion to purchase spectrum from LightSquared even though the spectrum has not yet been approved for use. The offer was reported by Bloomberg, which cited “people familiar with the matter.” The bid from Dish is a stalking-horse bid, which is routinely used in bankruptcy proceedings as a minimum price for an an asset.

LightSquared is controlled by Harbinger Capital Partners and its CEO, Phil Falcone, and has sunk more than $3 billion into developing the company’s 4G network. After testing in late 2011 and early 2012, traffic on LightSquared’s network was found to interfere with GPS systems. The company continues to try to find a work-around, but no progress has been announced.

Dish, which has countered Softbank’s bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), also has a bid in the works for Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) in case it cannot prevail in its attempt to acquire Sprint. Dish seeks to add wireless spectrum in order to offer a package of services both for a customer’s home and mobile services. LightSquared’s spectrum holdings total nearly 60 MHz, a significant amount, but not in an easy-to-use location.

Foxconn, once one of Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) largest suppliers, says it needs additional time to cut back worker overtime. (Reuters)

Dell Inc.’s (NASDAQ: DELL) profits fall, but that may not stop the fight over its future ownership. (Reuters)

Samsung runs out of some key parts for its smartphones and may have to turn to competitors for more inventory. (Reuters)

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.’s (NYSE: JCP) new CEO says it will take several quarters to salvage the company. (Reuters)

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) will press the FCC to look at the Softbank bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). (Reuters)

EBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) could create apps for Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Glass product. (Reuters)

Northrup Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) will try to buy back 25% of its shares by 2015. (Reuters)

The Securities and Exchange Commission to charge Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) with a record fine for failing to keep track of trouble in its own markets. (WSJ)

The stock market is not hurt by an earnings season with many poor results. (WSJ)

Shareholders of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) are sent a letter supporting Jamie Dimon’s attempt to remain as both chief executive officer and chairman. (WSJ)

Wages in China rise sharply in the past year. (WSJ)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) says that consumers are “stretched” due to an uneven economy. (WSJ)

A new way to account for leases may increase the amount of debt some companies carry on their balance sheets. (WSJ)

Google says several companies, including CNN, Twitter and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), have made apps for Google Glass. (NYT)

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) traders will not longer use the chat feature on Bloomberg terminals as the scandal over journalist access to data grows. (FT)

U.S. farm land prices grow sharply despite weak demand for wheat. (FT)

Monthly car sales in Europe rise for the first time in 19 months, mostly on strength in Germany. (Bloomberg)

The Financial Times this morning is citing “two people familiar with the situation” who say that Softbank, which owns about one-third of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, has been telling investment bankers that if they want a piece of Alibaba’s coming initial public offering (IPO), the banks had better pass on helping fund an offer from Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Softbank’s $20.1 billion offer for Sprint has been topped by an offer of $25.5 billion from Dish.

Alibaba’s IPO is the hottest thing on Wall Street since the IPO of Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). The IPO is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of this year or early next year at a valuation in the neighborhood of $60 billion to $80 billion. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) sold about half of its 40% stake in Alibaba back to the Chinese firm late last year for total consideration of about $7.6 billion. That placed a valuation of around $40 billion on Alibaba.

A consortium of nine banks, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS), Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB), HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) recently refinanced $8 billion in Alibaba debt at lower interest, and the nine are believed to have the inside track on the coming IPO.

How credible is a threat from Softbank to withhold the IPO from banks that cooperate with Dish? Investment banks are almost desperate for profitable Asian business and Softbank’s message is pretty clear, even if the Japanese company has not said as much directly. But even though Softbank owns a big chunk of Alibaba, the Japanese probably cannot tell the Chinese which banks to use. The banks will get the message without having to be told.

Posting on Google+ has been low, hurting the chance for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to get ads for the service. (Reuters)

A drop in network TV ratings hurts prices of the annual “upfront” buying process of ads. (Reuters)

Softbank asks some large U.S. financial firms not to back the Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) offer for Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). (Reuters)

Intial public offerings are set to increase as a taste for risk moves back into the markets. (WSJ)

“Iron Man 3″ keeps its top spot at the U.S. box office, and “The Great Gatsby” finishes in second. (WSJ)

Chinese companies invest in businesses that supply the car industry in the United States. (NYT)

The least director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), Lee Raymond, may help decide the fate of chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon. (NYT)

Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) ABC will allow some viewers to watch shows live via a new app. (NYT)

Large hedge funds begin to invest in Greek bank debt. (FT)

The United States pressures EU leaders about the extent and seriousness of the recession in the region. (Bloomberg)

Sales at Yum! Brands Inc.’s (NYSE: YUM) KFC outlets in China are hurt as much by mistakes in store design and menu as by worry about the safety of chicken. (Bloomberg)

The U.S. dollar index is trading up 1.01% today, now at 82.710. The GSCI commodity index is up 0.4% at 632.85. WTI crude oil closed down 0.2%, at $96.39 a barrel. Brent crude trades up 0.1% at $104.41 a barrel. Natural gas is up 0.2% today at about $3.99 per million BTUs, after a larger-than-expected inventory build (more coverage here). Gold settled down 0.4% today at $1,468.60.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down more than 22 points to 15,082.62 (-0.15%), the NASDAQ fell about 4 points (-0.12%) to 3,409.17, and the S&P 500 fell -0.37% or about 6 points to 1,626.67.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including:

• Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) cut to ‘underperform’ at Raymond James;
• American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) raised to ‘outperform’ at Wells Fargo;
• Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR) started as ‘buy’ with a price target of $84 at Deutsche Bank;
• Sina Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) raised to ‘overweight’ at HSBC; and
• Tumi Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TUMI) cut to ‘neutral’ at Citigroup.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading:

• Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is up 11.9% at $6.26 (more coverage here);
• Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) is down 0.8% at $84.24;
• Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) is down 7.1% at $52.95 (more coverage here);
• Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) is down 6.7% at $0.29;
• Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX) is down 24.5% at $39.42;
• Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) is down 0.5% at $54.98;
• Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU) is up 0.8% at $95.00;
• Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) is up 1.6% at $15.72;
• Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE) is down 5.3% at $14.41; and
• Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) is down 2.2% at $38.76 (more coverage here).

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from magicJack Vocaltec Ltd. (NASDAQ: CALL), Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP), Net 1 UEPS Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: UEPS), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN), TheStreet Inc. (NASDAQ: TST), and Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Affymax Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFY) is up 25.7% at $1.81. The biopharmaceutical firm continues to rise on no news. Be careful though, forward P/E is negative, even after two days of gains in the neighborhood of 20% each.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is up 32.1% at $73.67 after posting a new all-time high of $75.77 earlier today. The all-electric car maker reported a profit for the first quarter, and the bulls cannot be stopped.

Windstream Corp. (NASDAQ: WIN) is down 4% at $8.18. The communications and technology solutions company posted unappealing results and the stock’s massive dividend could be a casualty. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Friday. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Kansas City Fed President Esther George are giving speeches. We have also noted the following event on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 2:00 p.m. – Treasury Budget

The company attributed the decline in revenues to its Blockbuster segment, as if anyone expected that to be a winner. The big drop in profit was caused by higher programming and subscriber acquisition costs. Even excluding a $99 million one-time gain in the first quarter of last year, Dish came up about $30 million lower in operating income this year.

The company’s CEO said:

Broadband sales are encouraging, especially given that almost all of our dishNET™customers have bundled with our pay-TV service.

New pay-TV subscriber additions were lower, but net subscriber numbers rose by about 36,000 in the first quarter. Dish’s subscriber count of 14.09 million is about 20,000 more than at the end of the same period a year ago.

The company added 66,000 broadband customers in the first quarter, compared to just 6,000 a year ago. This is where the company is looking for growth and why it has made bids for both Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Expect Dish to chase Clearwire with renewed gusto if it loses out on Sprint.

Dish shares are trading down about 1.4% in the premarket this morning to $39.04. The stock’s 52-week range is $26.12 to $40.95, and that high was posted yesterday. The consensus target price for the shares was around $40.75 before today’s report.

The U.S. dollar index is trading down 0.43% today, now at 81.897. The GSCI commodity index is down 0.4% at 630.47. WTI crude oil closed up 1.1%, at $96.62 a barrel, following today’s report on inventories (more coverage here). Brent crude trades down 0.2% at $104.21 a barrel, creating the lowest spread between WTI and Brent in recent memory. Natural gas is up 1.4% today at about $3.98 per million BTUs. Gold settled up 1.7% today at $1,473.70.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 48 points to 15,104.97 (0.32%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 17 points (0.49%) to 3,413.27, and the S&P 500 rose 0.41% or nearly 7 points to 1,632.68.

There were a several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including:

• Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) cut to ‘cautiousl’ at ISI group;
• Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) Raised to ‘buy’ at Sterne Agee;
• U.S. Auto Parts Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTS) raised to ‘buy’ at Roth Capital;
• Plains All American Pipeline LP (NYSE: PAA) cut to ‘neutral’ at Credit Suisse; and
• Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) cut to ‘underperform at Baird.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night resulted in some price moves today, including these as of the last half hour of trading:

• American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) is down 0.9% at $41.61;
• Demand Media Inc. (NYSE: DMD) is up 2.9% at $8.83;
• Fuel Tech Inc. (NASDAQ: FTEK) is down 10.3% at $3.59;
• Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) is up 6.3% at $5.62;
• Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) is up 0.9% at $34.65;
• SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE: SD) is down 3.5% at $5.20;
• Zillow Inc. (NYSE: Z) is down 9.9% at $56.70;
• AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is down 9.8% at $37.36 (more coverage here);
• Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) is up fractionally at $47.34;
• The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) is down 5.7% at $5.77; and
• Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is up 10.5% at $13.30.

Before markets open tomorrow morning we are scheduled to hear earnings reports from Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN), Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR), Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST), Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE: RAX), Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU), Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC), Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE), and Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH).

Some standouts among heavily traded stocks today include:

Affymax Inc. (NASDAQ: AFFY) is up 18.9% at $1.37. The biopharmaceutical firm had no news today, but seemed to catch a wave from Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN).

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) is up 17.3% at $21.59, a new 52-week high. The video game company posted good results and forecast a strong current quarter.

Fusion-io Inc. (NYSE: FIO) is down 19.4% at $14.51. The storage company’s CEO and founder resigned today.

Stay tuned for Thursday. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker and Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser are giving speeches. We have also noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 8:30 a.m. – New claims for unemployment benefits
• 10:00 a.m. – Wholesale trade
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 1:00 p.m. – 30-year bond auction
• 4:30 p.m. – Fed balance sheet and money supply