Sprint Nextel Corp. announced a $12 billion joint venture for WiMAX with Clearwire Corp. Wednesday.
The deal creates a new company that would use the Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) name and offer traditional voice service plus wireless broadband access. The new company has raised $3.2 billion in outside financing, including $1.05 billion from Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA), $1 billion from Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), $550 million from Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), $500 million from Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and $100 million from Bright House Networks. Clearwire was founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw.