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Sprint (S) Seeks to Indirectly Gain Control of Clearwire (CLWR)

October 18, 2012 9:24 AM EDT
Very clever, Mr. Sprint!

According to an amended 13D filing with the U.S. SEC made earlier, wireless giant Sprint (NYSE: S) is looking to gain control of Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) in a roundabout sort of way.

Sprint's SprintCo entity will be in talks with the likes of Eagle River Holdings (ERH) and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) to control Clearwire without actually acquiring it.

SprintCo will acquire stock held by ERH to bring its Class A stake from 48 percent up to 50.8 percent, while it will control about 90.2 percent of Clearwire's Class B shares.

From the 13D filing: "The ERH ROFO Notice provides notice to the Equityholders of ERH’s intent to transfer (i) 30,922,958 shares of Class A Common Stock and (ii) 2,728,512 shares of Class B Common Stock and a corresponding number of Clearwire Communications Class B Common Interests..."

With Sprint selling services on Clearwire's network, control of the smaller spectrum company will be critical. However, it futher dashes hopes of a quick buyout of Clearwire by Sprint, which was mulled by investors last week when Sprint received at $20.1 billion offer from SoftBank for 70 percent of the company.

Ahead of the bell, Clearwire is down about 7 percent while Sprint is ticking higher.


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