Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
To the surprise of few and the delight of many, Clearwire’s “special committee” nearly depleted the world’s exasperation supply this week by throwing its support behind Dish Network’s attempt to acquire a stake in the company. That’s right. Going against what most assumed and what its majority owner wanted, Clearwire did the wise thing and went for the money.
Much of the stake in Clearwire is of course currently owned by Sprint Nextel, which was the other option for which that special committee could have thrown its support behind, though at a lesser price. But alas, Dish was the suitor that seemed to garner the heart – and pocketbook – of Clearwire, thus, like Groundhog Day, we will now have to suffer through (at least) six more weeks of winter.
Can you blame that special committee for not wanting to cozy up to Dish? What with the extra dollar-per-share being offered up for a stake in the company that your controlling ownership group would rather you did not take. Maybe it was that letter Sprint Nextel’s CEO Dan Hesse sent to Clearwire’s board noting that the Dish offer was “not actionable,” citing “certain provisions violate Delaware law, Clearwire’s certificate of incorporation or the rights of the parties to the existing Clearwire Equityholders’ Agreement, including Sprint.”
I know when my parents told me to do something, I usually did the opposite, regardless of what their certificate of incorporate or the rights if the parties to our existing shareholder agreement. I guess I was sort of a rebel that way, so have to at least show some sympathy for Clearwire in sticking it to “the man.”
And, it’s not like Sprint Nextel has been providing the most stable home life lately, what with its own operational and ownership issues.
But, is running into the arms of Dish really a wise move? Hasn’t that company shown itself to be a bit “wild and free” when it comes to decision making? Are “wild” and “free” two traits Clearwire needs to be relying on at this point? I would think that “stable” and “well-funded” would be more appealing.
I keep thinking that maybe at this point it’s best for Sprint Nextel to simply let Clearwire take this leap of faith; let it run into the arms of Dish and in turn force Dish to not just acquire a basic 25% stake in Clearwire, but offer to sell off its entire majority interest and pocket a few bucks.
It’s obvious Clearwire has some growing up to do, and maybe hanging out with a rebel like Dish without a safety-line back to its parents could be the way to do that. Chances are that Clearwire will quickly realize that while Dish is fun to party with, once the night is over all that’s left is just a serious hangover. Plus, hanging on to someone that doesn’t want to be hung on to never ends well.
I know there are all sorts of arguments as to why Sprint Nextel should be clinging to Clearwire as if its life depended on it, mostly surrounding spectrum … and … well … mostly spectrum. But, how about if Sprint Nextel focused its financial interests on the government’s plans to auction off spectrum in the 600 MHz band instead of fixating on Clearwire’s spectrum? Wouldn’t some of that juicy 600 MHz spectrum go much farther in providing Sprint Nextel some parity with larger rivals than Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum.
Look, I know this whole thing is pretty complicated. But that is what dealing with an adolescent is all about. Sure, you wish kids would always make the right decisions, but that never happens and you have to just let them do what they gotta do. Because the next thing you know they are all growns up.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–I have railed for some time regarding the boring rut smartphone makers have found themselves in when rolling out new devices that seem to look identical to old devices, which of course all look like slabs of grey plastic. However, some recent moves show at least some device makers willing to draw a bit more outside in the lines when it comes to designing new smartphones.
Samsung, which already re-wrote the coloring book with its Galaxy Camera “device,” has come a bit back towards reality – but in a good way – with its recently launched Galaxy S4 Zoom and ruggedized/water-friendly Galaxy S4 Active.
Both of those devices continue to show that Samsung is not taking its position in the smartphone space for granted, with innovative features that seem more applicable to the real world than new icon shading. This is especially good news as Samsung is also probably one of the leading companies in using both “plastic” and “slab-looking” for its more traditional smartphone design philosophies.
Also playing inside this outside-the-box space is Kyocera, which has seemingly moved away from some more unorthodox and impractical design themes, into a mode that is also embracing the real world. That includes its new Hydro and Torque lineup. These devices take into account that people in general are the biggest users of smartphones, and that people do some dumb things with their smartphones.
Not that I don’t suspect that whatever Apple has cooking up for its updated iPhone line won’t garner more headlines and lines of heads in front of stores when it finally hits the market, but until Apple’s design ethos turns more towards reality will I be impressed.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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