Investor continue to appear averse to Clearwire taking money from Sprint Nextel, as another investment firm has offered to bankroll Clearwire’s short-term money needs.
Reuters is reporting that New York-based Aurelius Capital Management sent a letter to Clearwire’s board offering to provide $80 million in debt financing exchangeable for Clearwire’s stock at $2 per share. Clearwire’s stock (CLWR) was trading early Wednesday at around $3.25 per share.
The move by Aurelius follows an offer earlier this week by minority shareholder Crest Financial, which said it would provide Clearwire with up to $240 million in financing through convertible debt that would allow Clearwire’s board to stop dipping into financing being provided by Sprint Nextel, which many have viewed as bringing Clearwire closer to accepting Sprint Nextel’s current $2.2 billion buyout attempt. That acquisition attempt is being held up by a counter-bid posted by Dish Networks, which Clearwire has stated it was still reviewing. However, while it’s reviewing its options, Clearwire has dipped into a pair of funding options provided by Sprint Nextel as part of its acquisition attempt. The arrangement with Sprint Nextel provides for the exchange of debt for Clearwire common stock at $1.50 per share.
As the future of Clearwire remains uncertain, the carrier continues to delay the rollout of its TD-LTE offering using its extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings. Clearwire announced a year ago that it launch planned to launch its TDD-LTE network across 31 cities during the first half of 2013, including New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. That plan called for the initial deployment phase to include up to 5,000 cell sites in the 31 cities, with total plans for up to 8,000 sites as part of its first phase of deployment.
Clearwire is currently operating a WiMAX-based network covering approximately 130 million potential customers that is the basis for one of Sprint Nextel’s “4G” offerings. Sprint Nextel is also in the process of rolling out an LTE network of its own that currently covers approximately 50 markets and is the basis for its other “4G” branded service. The carrier is looking to tap into Cleawire’s deep 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to further expand the capacity of its LTE offering.
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