WASHINGTON, D.C.-NextWave Wireless Inc. filed a Form 10 with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering their existing shares of stock, but the company said it is not preparing for an initial public offering.
“NextWave Wireless LLC has filed a Form 10 with the SEC to register its equity securities for listing on the Nasdaq National Market,” explained a NextWave spokesperson in an email. “NextWave Wireless LLC has not filed for an IPO and is not preparing to sell equity in the company to the public. In connection with its Form 10 filing, NextWave intends to convert from an LLC into a corporation.”
In the filing, NextWave said it’s developing next-generation mobile broadband wireless multimedia products, technologies and services.
“We are developing proprietary chipsets and related network and device products based on the IEEE 802.16e WiMAX standard that we believe will significantly improve the performance and economics of fixed and mobile WiMAX networks,” stated NextWave’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “A key design objective of our products and technologies is to improve the ability of mobile WiMAX to cost-effectively handle the large volume of network traffic that we believe Voice over Internet Protocol telephony, high-speed Web-surfing and next-generation wireless multimedia applications such as high-resolution streaming video, high-fidelity streaming audio and interactive real-time gaming will generate.”
The company went on to note that it intends to market its 802.16e WiMAX-compliant products and technologies under the WiMAXplus trademark and said it plans to stimulate demand for WiMAXplus products by partnering with service providers to build and operate 802.16e WiMAX-compliant networks that operate in its licensed spectrum.
“In addition, through our PacketVideo subsidiary, we are one of the world’s leading providers of embedded multimedia software for mobile phones,” said NextWave. “We believe our WiMAXplus enhanced network and subscriber solutions, combined with our wireless multimedia software products and our spectrum assets, will offer wireless service providers, cable operators, multimedia content distributors, applications service providers and Internet service providers a platform to provide advanced wireless broadband services to their customers.”
To facilitate the deployment of its WiMAXplus network offering, the company said it has accumulated a spectrum footprint covering more than 93 million people, in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Houston.
Both NextWave and PacketVideo have had their share of problems.
In 2005, NextWave emerged from a long and troubled bankruptcy process that began in 1998. The saga began when the carrier was unable to obtain the necessary financing to make the installment payments on the licenses it had bought at government auction in 1996. The C-block auction, as it was known, was set up for small businesses. Because it was the third auction after large, established carriers already had purchased their licenses, many of the C-blockers did not succeed. The issue eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of NextWave. Ultimately, NextWave sold its licenses to Cingular Wireless L.LC. and Verizon Wireless and returned other licenses to the FCC. The FCC sold those licenses for $2.25 billion in 2005.
Since its founding in 1998, PacketVideo has raised more than $140 million from the likes of Intel Corp., Motorola Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Siemens AG, Time Warner, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. and Reuters. The company split in 2003 when Alcatel Corp. purchased the network side of PacketVideo. The remaining portion of the business, which kept the PacketVideo name, focused on sales of software to handset makers. In 2004, PacketVideo counted more than 60 design wins and 17 million handsets shipped, with customers like Nokia Corp., Sony Ericsson and others. In a surprise move, NextWave bought out PacketVideo’s investors last September for an undisclosed amount.
