Clearwire Surges After Payment, Sprint Deal .. .Clearwire Corp. (CLWR), the money-losing wireless carrier, surged after making a $237 million interest payment to creditors and striking a new network-sharing agreement with partner Sprint Nextel Corp. (S)
Clearwire, based in Bellevue, Washington, rose as much as 37 percent and was up 22 percent to $2.17 at 10:06 a.m. New York time. The stock had lost 65 percent this year before today.
Clearwire and Sprint will extend a deal under which Sprint buys wholesale wireless capacity from Clearwire and then resells services to its own customers, the companies said in a statement today. Clearwire will get as much as $1.6 billion over the next four years, helping address its cash needs as it shifts to higher-speed wireless technology.
“This is a significantly positive development for Clearwire,” said Michael Nelson, an analyst with Mizhuo Securities USA Inc. “Without this deal, there would have been increased challenges for them to raise additional funding.”
The deal comes after a standoff over how the two companies would work together when their current network-sharing deal ends at the end of 2012. Sprint, which is Clearwire’s largest shareholder and wholesale customer, had said it would stop selling devices that use WiMax, Clearwire’s existing technology, after next year.
Clearwire has said it plans to move to higher-speed Long- Term Evolution, or LTE, wireless technology. Still, the company said it needs about $1 billion to roll out the updated wireless network and fund operations.
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