Following Clearwire’s balance sheet moves over the winter, Sprint’s ownership stake in the company has fallen below the 50% threshold. The company says, therefore, it is reclaiming its full voting rights since it is no longer at risk of having a Clearwire default trigger on its own debt.
Since Sprint and Clearwire’s plans are mostly aligned right now, Sprint’s move today probably doesn’t foretell any dramatic shifts. Clearwire is now laying the groundwork for its transition from WiMAX to LTE technology, which will start coming online next year. When it comes online, it will help power the overall Sprint LTE effort under a long term agreement. Clearwire is still sitting on a gold mine of spectrum — you know, that stuff we have an ongoing ‘crisis’ about.
With LightSquared out of the picture and Clearwire’s activities currently in the background, it is looking like our real chance for news that doesn’t involve AT&T and Verizon jousting with the FCC over more spectrum is T-Mobile USA. It’s still not clear just how the US arm of the German giant is going to go about its own transformation.
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There has been more than your article reports going on with Clearwire over the last 60 days. First, CLWR announces a peculiar controlled equity offering of $300 million (not exercised yet – at a time when the stock is at all time lows). Crest Financial took a major position in the company a few weeks ago, buying 38 million shares, and stated it was interested in naming a board member as well as discussing strategic moves with the company’s team. Now, Sprint makes some moves to shore up its voting position. I am not sure if this ties in or not, but collectively its seems like there is something going on.