On the heels of a positive vote from Clearwire shareholders, Sprint Nextel announced this morning that it has closed on its acquisition of the remaining stake in the carrier it did not previously own. The deal calls for Sprint Nextel to buy the remaining shares of Clearwire for $5 per share and brings to a close Clearwire’s venture as an independent operator.
Clearwire shareholders yesterday voted in favor of the transaction, after having previous votes delayed by competing offers from Dish Network. Sprint Nextel’s last offer came with commitments from a group of Clearwire shareholders representing approximately 9% of the company’s outstanding stock to support the Sprint Nextel offer. That was in addition to previous commitments from Comcast, Intel and Bright House Networks that control 13% of Clearwire’s stock in backing Sprint Nextel’s attempt to boost its stake in Clearwire. Sprint Nextel put added pressure on Dish Network by filling a lawsuit against Dish claiming its proposed deal violated state law and the rights of Clearwire stakeholders.
The final price paid by Sprint Nextel was a 68% premium over its initial $2.2 billion offer to acquire the remaining stake in Clearwire, with the final price tag coming in at approximately $3.7 billion.
With Clearwire now back under its full control, Sprint Nextel is expected to announce tighter integration of Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings into Sprint Nextel’s Network Vision and LTE rollout plans. Those plans are expected to receive a financial and technical boost with the expected close tomorrow of Softbank’s acquisition of a 78% stake in Sprint Nextel for $21.6 billion.
The current iteration of Clearwire was formed in 2008,with Sprint Nextel throwing its 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings it picked up from acquiring Nextel Communications into Clearwire along with financial backing from a number of telecom and high-tech firms, including Comcast ($1.05 billion), Intel($1 billion), Time Warner Cable ($550 million), Google ($500 million) and Bright House Networks ($100 million). Clearwire quickly took the lead in rolling out “4G” services with its WiMAX offering, though that platform was quickly over taken by larger rivals using LTE-based technology for their competing “4G” services. Clearwire’s WiMAX build stalled at around 130 million potential customers covered due to a lack of funding, with the carrier eventually announcing plans to begin the roll out of services based on the LTE standard.
Bored? Why not follow me on Twitter?
