Clearwire shareholders voted in favor of the carrier’s acquisition by Sprint Nextel, filling in the final piece of a pending pair of acquisitions that could provide a stronger No. 3 in the domestic wireless market.
Clearwire noted that the required majority of its shareholders not affiliated with Sprint Nextel, which controls just over 50% of Clearwire, or Softbank and more than 75% of Clearwire’s outstanding shares voted in favor of Sprint Nextel’s offer to acquire the remaining stake in Clearwire for $5 per share. The vote means that Clearwire is now set to have its remaining stake acquired my Sprint Nextel, with the deal set to close on July 9.
“We are pleased that our stockholders recognize the value and merits of our merger with Sprint,” said Erik Prusch, president and CEO of Clearwire, in a statement. “The Clearwire team is looking forward to working closely with our counterparts at Sprint to realize the potential of our assets inherent in this combination as we integrate our two companies.”
Clearwire’s board of directors had already thrown their support behind the Sprint Nextel offer, after having previously voted in favor of a $4.40 per share offer put up by Dish Network. The Clearwire transaction had already garnered government approval as part of a larger transaction involving Softbank acquiring a 78% stake in Sprint Nextel for $21.6 billion, which gained shareholder approval late last month.
The final Clearwire price was a significant premium over Sprint Nextel’s original offer of $2.97 per share from late last year that was initially accepted by Clearwire’s board of directors. However, that offer was pushed aside by Dish Network’s attempt to acquire a stake in Clearwire as well as an attempt to acquire a piece of Sprint Nextel.
The Clearwire decision is the final step in near nine-month ordeal that will see Japan’s Softbank enter the U.S. market through a dominant position in current No. 3 operator in Sprint Nextel as well as a handle on Clearwire’s vast 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings that are set to power a TDD-LTE network similar to what Softbank already operates in Japan. Softbank, which is set to close on the Sprint Nextel deal July 10, has said it plans to invest billions of dollars into Sprint Nextel, which has seen its early dominance of the “4G” marketing space erode as rivals both large and small have aggressively rolled out their next-generation LTE networks.
Sprint Nextel recently turned down its legacy iDEN network operating in the 800 MHz spectrum band, which will allow the carrier to divert those assets to bolstering its own LTE and legacy CDMA operations. Sprint Nextel currently relies heavily on its 1.9 GHz spectrum holdings to power both its LTE and CDMA operations, though has said Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings will allow the carrier to provide significantly more capacity for LTE services in densly populated markets. The carrier has already announced plans to offer devices designed to take advantage of its diverse spectrum holdings.
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