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It’s Official! Sprint and Clearwire Complete Major WiMAX Deal
With the help of several blue chip investors Sprint and Clearwire announce a planned nationwide WiMAX company.
Today we gain confirmation that
blue chip investors Intel, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Google and
Bright House Networks have pledged $3.2 billion in the formation of the new
company to be known as Clearwire. The combined company will be helmed by
Ben Wolff as CEO with Barry West serving as President. Wireless industry veteran
and Clearwire Chairman Craig McCaw will continue in that capacity. And this time ladies and
gentlemen the deals are signed and there is real money on the table. This is big
news for the industry without a doubt.
Trilogy Equity Partners has agreed to invest $ 10 million in Clearwire common
stock. Sprint will control a 51 percent stake in the combined venture with
existing Clearwire shareholders to receive somewhere around 27 percent ownership
of the new firm. The new investors will control a 22 percent share of Clearwire.
The company also announced a number of wholesale re-sale MVNO agreements amongst
themselves. Sprint will be able to sell its 3G products across the platform and
the other partners will be able to leverage it as well.
The deal will have to pass regulatory approval but it is based upon a $20 price
for Clearwire stock.
Sprint on a conference call today announced that it alone had 28 billion MHz/POPs
of position in the 2.5 GHz spectrum range and the combined company will have
over 40 billion MHz/POPs, which it believes is the largest single spectrum
position of any carrier in the industry.
The company's deployment target is to cover 120 to 140 million people by 2010.
One thing I find very interesting in this deal is the potential for further
alliances amongst these players. It is important to remember that Comcast
Corporation for example already owns a significant spectrum footprint in the AWS
spectrum range at 1.7/2.1 GHz range. This range currently has no WiMAX profile
or appreciable traction in the band. One wonders if there is a potential for
Comcast to leverage this spectrum into the deal at a later date. Also Google and
AOL have been in talks to collaborate and certainly this could potentially
leverage the AOL brand to resurgence on a new leading edge broadband network.
Tim Sanders
The Final Mile
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tags:
Hallelujah!!!
Jackson Blake
www.ZanderMax.com