KIRKLAND, Wash.-Craig McCaw’s Clearwire Corp. filed for a $400 million initial public offering, a move that likely will help fund the company’s efforts to expand its wireless broadband operations in the United States and elsewhere.
The company did not reveal how many shares it plans to sell or when the IPO will occur. The company filed for the CLWR ticker symbol.
Clearwire sells wireless high-speed Internet and Voice over Internet Protocol calling services using a proprietary technology covering 27 metro markets in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. The company also operates in Ireland, Belgium, Denmark and Mexico. Clearwire has said it plans to migrate its service to the WiMAX standard. Indeed, the company has agreed to use Intel Corp.’s WIMAX equipment. In addition, Bell Canada has invested $100 million in Clearwire.
In the company’s IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it revealed a variety of details about its business, including:
- In the markets where it has done business for more than six months, Clearwire has managed a penetration level of around 5 percent;
- As of March 31, the company counted 88,000 subscribers in the United States and 11,500 subscribers in Belgium and Ireland;
- The company’s network is designed to support “portable, and eventually mobile, wireless broadband services;”
- In April it began offering VoIP services, and Clearwire plans to offer other value-added services and applications “including enhanced mobility-based services, subscription-based technical support and other premium services;”
- The company scored revenues last year of $33.5 million and a net loss of $140 million;
- The company expects to expand into Seattle and Honolulu this year;
- And Clearwire counts 760 employees.
