WASHINGTON-Following the recent sale of its remaining spectrum licenses to Verizon Wireless for $3 billion, NextWave Telecom Inc. filed its third joint plan of reorganization with the bankruptcy court overseeing the company’s ongoing chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The latest plan provides for the full payment of creditor claims, plus interest and a distribution of cash to equity holders. Those equity holders will also have the right to receive either an additional cash distribution or an equity interest in NextWave’s new operating company that the company said would pursue broadband wireless market opportunities.
NextWave’s noted key elements of the latest reorganization plan include the sale of its spectrum licenses to Verizon Wireless and accompanying $71.9 million payment to the Federal Communications Commission; an internal corporate restructuring that will consolidate NextWave’s remaining assets, which include MMDS spectrum holdings and ITFS spectrum leases, into the new NextWave Broadband Inc.; and the conversion of the current NextWave Wireless Inc. into a limited liability company that will hold cash and all the stock of NextWave Broadband.
“The plan is a testament to the company’s resolve and determination to pay its debts in full, to create significant value for shareholders, and to continue in its efforts to become a leading developer and provider of innovative broadband wireless services,” said NextWave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Allen Salmasi.
In addition to the $3 billion raised from the sale of wireless licenses to Verizon Wireless last month, NextWave raised nearly $1 billion this summer through an auction of a handful of licenses and $1.4 billion earlier this year through the sale of 34 licenses to Cingular Wireless L.L.C. NextWave originally bid more than $4.7 billion for spectrum licenses during FCC auctions in the mid-90s before filing for bankruptcy protection and fighting a successful legal battle with the government agency over control of those licenses.
