Skip to footer

Sprint to gain control of Clearwire

Sprint purchase of Clearwire stock will give it a 53 percent stake in the wireless network operator. Clearwire has large network but weak financials.

|
Koji Sasahara/AP/File
Photographers and TV camea crew gather around Softbank Corp. President Masayoshi Son, left, and Sprint Nextel Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse shaking hands during their joint press conference in Tokyo Monday. Fresh from that deal, which offers new resources, Sprint announced Thursday Oct. 18, 2012, that it is acquiring a controlling interest in wireless network operator Clearwire.
  • By Peter Svensson AP Technology Writer

| NEW YORK

Flush with the promise of cash from a Japanese investor, Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday said that it's buying out the founder of Clearwire Corp. to gain majority control of the wireless network operator.

Sprint said in a regulatory filing that it will pay wireless pioneer Craig McCaw and his holding company $100 million for a 5 percent stake in Clearwire, pushing Sprint's voting stake in the Bellevue, Washington, company to 53 percent.

Clearwire has the right to use a large chunk of the nation's airwaves, but lacks the money to renovate and expand its network. Sprint has been struggling financially too, and hasn't been in a position to invest in Clearwire. That changed with Monday's announcement that Japanese cellphone company Softbank Corp. will buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion.

Clearwire shares fell 16 cents, or 7 percent, to $2.10 in pre-market trading Thursday. They have already nearly doubled in price on speculation that the Softbank deal means Sprint will buy Clearwire outright.

Sprint shares rose 3 cents to $5.76 in premarket dealings.

Sprint and Clearwire have a hot-and-cold relationship. Sprint rolled part of its own operations into Clearwire in 2008, gaining a stake of just over 50 percent. But Clearwire's weak financials threatened to drag Sprint down with it, and Sprint reduced its stake to less than 50 percent.

Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint is also Clearwire's largest customer, buying wholesale access to its network and reselling it as "Sprint 4G." But Sprint is also building its own 4G network, and has shown little interest in supporting Clearwire for the long term.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Sprint to gain control of Clearwire
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1018/Sprint-to-gain-control-of-Clearwire
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe