Verizon Wireless is currently in talks to increase their wireless network by leasing spectrum from Clearwire, according to The Wall Street Journal. Verizon reportedly is willing to spend around $1.5 billion to lease the spectrum from Clearwire. A large percentage of Clearwire is owned by Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner, Brighthouse, Google, and Intel.
Sprint has finalized a deal to buy out the minority shareholders of Clearwire for $2.2 billion. This is a higher price than what was offered before. Sprint said that they will be paying $2.97 per share for Clearwire stock that they do not already own. Last week Sprint said that they would offer $2.90 per share, which totaled around $2.1 billion. The deal still needs to be approved by regulators and Clearwire shareholders. Sprint is expecting the deal to close by the middle of next year.
Sprint has made an offer to buy the remaining 49% in Clearwire. Sprint is looking to buy the remaining shares at $2.90 each according to Bloomberg. This values the total deal at $2.1 billion. Sprint has an interest in owning Clearwire because of all of the spectrum assets that would be gained from an acquisition. Sprint bought a majority stake in Clearwire a couple months ago around the same time that SoftBank bought 70% of Sprint.
Sprint Nextel Corporation announced today that they are no longer a majority stake owner in Clearwire Corporation. Last year Sprint was the biggest shareholder in Clearwire and they reduced their voting shares in the company to below 50% in order to avoid a risk of a default trigger on their own debt since Clearwire was facing a possible loan default. Because of the recent equity that Clearwire issued, Sprint’s economic interest dropped to below 50%. “Now that our economic interest has fallen below 50 percent, we are reclaiming our full voting rights so that our voting rights and economic rights are once again aligned,” said Sprint spokesman Scott Sloat.
In documents filed with the SEC, Google has revealed that they will be selling their entire stake in Clearwire Corporation. Google spent $500 million to acquire a 6.5% stake in Clearwire back in 2008. Google is selling their stake for $47 million. What a terrible investment.
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A group of companies, including Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House, are in to acquire Clearwire. Clearwire recently expressed interest in building a 4G LTE network. Sprint would head the deal with funding from the cable companies, giving Clearwire the means to light up the network and giving the companies access to that network. There is no word yet on what the official agreement would be. [TechCrunch]
The Clearwire board of directors has made John Stanton the chairman of the company. Stanton will be replacing Clearwire founder Craig McCaw, who resigned last month. McCaw had founded Clearwire and later became the chairman. Clearwire was formed through investments from Sprint Nextel, Google, Comcast, and other companies.
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Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) Chairman Craig McCaw has stepped down from his position late last week. McCaw, 61, was one of the pioneers of mobile phone technology. Clearwire is struggling to build high-speed wireless 4G networks across the U.S. according to Bloomberg.
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