Sprint, Clearwire Together Again?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. have re-started their talks to jointly build and operate a nationwide WiMAX network.

The two had previously tried to do that before ending the agreement last November, leaving Sprint to alone shoulder the burden of meeting its goal of covering 100 million people by the end of 2008. Given Sprint’s recent financial woes and leadership change-ups, many on Wall Street have called for an end to those expensive build-out plans. As for Clearwire, its shares lost 40 percent of their value since the joint plan was dissolved; the news of new talks sent its stock price back up 23.2 percent on Tuesday.
 
The companies also have approached Google Inc. and Best Buy Inc. about financing, according to the report.

Earlier this month investment analyst firm ThinkEquity foresaw the rebuilding of the agreement to work together, given the obvious benefits to both companies.

 In the wake of Sprint’s affirmation that its Xohm WiMAX plans remain on track, it issued the following statement: “We believe Sprint's next step is to rebuild its Clearwire alliance,” it said in a brief. “Advantages to Sprint include lower capital requirements, reduced operating expenses, the ability to swap spectrum to gain needed depth in planned service areas, quicker national network coverage, the ability to leverage Clearwire's relevant 4G operational experience, and gaining another distribution channel for its 3G and backhaul services…We note that the companies continue their discussions on the subject, and see no significant obstacle to its conclusion.”

Clearwire Corp. www.clearwire.com
Sprint Nextel www.sprint.com