(Updated 4:41 p.m.; added AGL Magazine story link.)
Well, it’s almost over. Clearwire, that is.
Clearwire will sink from site, er, from sight as SoftSprint (or someone else depending on the investor law suits will will claim insufficient value to be paid by Sprint) ponies up the relatively small bucks to buy the rest of Clearwire that Sprint doesn’t already own.
So Clearwire’s WiMax is dead. Clearwire’s shift to LTE is dead. Clearwire’s microwave sites will soon be dead.
Clearwire is all but dead. The corpse is worth more dead, mainly if not entirely because of the FCC’s spectrum licenses it presently owns…and soon will transfer. My gut says that the existing sites are mostly useless expect for some possibility of site-to-MTSO backhaul.
I bet Google’s sorry it jumped ship in February of 2012, receiving only $1.60 for each of its 29 million shares (something greater than a 90% loss on its original investment). With the current buyout at $2.97 per share, that’s nearly $40m that Google would have relieved had it not jumped early. Still quite a loss over what they paid for the shares originally, but $40m is still a lot of money for Google…like a couple of hours of revenue. Okay, maybe Google won’t care so much.
Expect that if you are negotiating with Clearwire now, those negotiations will freeze. The REALLY cold freeze.
A lot of Clearwire site landlords should expect the ‘really bad news’ letter in about 6 months or so. If Sprint wins control of all of Clearwire, and it’s true to form, then they’ll offer landlords sucker deals to take on the liability for the non-removal of portions of Clearwire’s equipment. (See my posting on this subject HERE.)
AGL Magazine has good story coverage with quotes, which you can read by CLICKING HERE.
Another one bites the dust.
jlk
