Sprint sells Clearwire Shares to reduce voting rights

[marioc21]

Saw this today. Thought it was interesting. No mention as to what Sprint's voting percentage is now. I know it had been under 50% already. Wonder how much further this takes it.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com...11/clwr8-k.html

 

More info:

 

Sprint's economic interest fell below 50% after Clearwire issued sold new shares recently. That dropped their ownership below 50%. So Sprint is selling off shares to match their voting share with their ownership share. Still no word on what those percentages are.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-says-no-longer-clearwire-141552220.html

[ChadBroChillz]

Sprint is going in the wrong direction, they should be buying more, not selling.

[tybo31316]

Maybe sprint is trying to get more funds for network vision.

[4GHoward]

I remember two weeks ago Crest Financial reported that they bought a stake in Clearwire.

[marioc21]

Maybe sprint is trying to get more funds for network vision.

 

Sadly I doubt that Sprint made money on the sale of those Clearwire shares. More than likely they either broke even or lost money.

[S4GRU]

Selling CLWR almost never yields profit except for very well timed day traders.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[Rawvega]

According to this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-says-no-longer-clearwire-141552220.html Sprint seems to have increased, not reduced their voting rights.

 

 

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp (NYS:S) said on Monday it no longer has a majority stake in Clearwire Corp (CLWR) and as a result was able to increase its voting rights in the venture without risk of a default trigger on its own debt.

Last year Sprint, the biggest shareholder in Clearwire, reduced its voting shares in the company to below 50 percent in order to avoid any risk of a default trigger on its own debt at a time when Clearwire faced a possible loan default.

Because of recent equity that Clearwire issued, Sprint said its economic interest has declined to below 50 percent, giving it leeway to make its voting interest in line with its economic interest in Clearwire.

"Now that our economic interest has fallen below 50 percent, we are reclaiming our full voting rights so that our voting rights and economic rights are once again aligned," a Sprint spokesman, Scott Sloat, said.

Sprint shares were unchanged at $2.98, while Clearwire added 1 cent at $1.20.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

[S4GRU]

According to this link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sprint-says-no-longer-clearwire-141552220.html Sprint seems to have increased' date=' not reduced their voting rights.

 

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That makes a lot of sense. Since CLWR has sold so much more stock this year, it reduced Sprint's total ownership to less than 50% now. So Sprint should increase its voting control to the amount it owns up to the Max as long as it is below 50%.

 

Robert via Kindle Fire using Forum Runner

[marioc21]

Here's where Sprint stood as of March 31, 2012. From the 10-Q filing:

 

 

Sprint's Ownership Interest

Sprint's investment in Clearwire Corporation and its consolidated subsidiary Clearwire Communications LLC (together, "Clearwire") is part of our plan to participate in the fourth generation (4G) wireless broadband market. Sprint offers 4G products utilizing Clearwire's 4G wireless broadband network in available markets. As of March 31, 2012, Sprint held approximately 50.0% of a non-controlling economic interest in Clearwire Communications LLC and a 47.1% non-controlling voting interest in Clearwire Corporation (together, “Equity Interests”) for which the carrying value totaled $1.4 billion.

 

So to my reading, Sprint just sold down their economic stake down to 47.1% . We'll find out soon enough. I imagine Sprint has to file something with the SEC at some point. If not the second quarter ends this month and the earnings call will happen shortly their after.

[S4GRU]

Here's where Sprint stood as of March 31, 2012. From the 10-Q filing:

 

 

 

 

 

So to my reading, Sprint just sold down their economic stake down to 47.1% . We'll find out soon enough. I imagine Sprint has to file something with the SEC at some point. If not the second quarter ends this month and the earnings call will happen shortly their after.

 

 

They didn't sell it down to 47.1%. Clearwire sold more shares this year. It's kind of like adding water to a bucket. If you own 2 gallons of water in a bucket that has 4 gallons of water, you own 50% of the water. However, if someone adds a half gallon (or more shares), the percentage you own goes down to 44%. This is an analogy of what happened with Sprint and Clearwire shares.

 

And now that Sprint owns less than 50% of Clearwire, they should have voting rights restored on all their interest, back up to the maximum percentage owned, not to exceed 49%.

 

Robert

[marioc21]

They didn't sell it down to 47.1%. Clearwire sold more shares this year. It's kind of like adding water to a bucket. If you own 2 gallons of water in a bucket that has 4 gallons of water, you own 50% of the water. However, if someone adds a half gallon (or more shares), the percentage you own goes down to 44%. This is an analogy of what happened with Sprint and Clearwire shares.

 

And now that Sprint owns less than 50% of Clearwire, they should have voting rights restored on all their interest, back up to the maximum percentage owned, not to exceed 49%.

 

Robert

 

You know what. I completely misread the SEC filing. What the filing says is that Sprint is reversing their divestiture of 77 million shares from back in June of last year. They're paying Clearwire $7,700 dollars to get their get class B common shares back. So yes, Sprint is increasing their voting share back to the same level as their economic share.

 

My mistake.

[jefbal99]

Thanks for the follow up info, I was trying to figure out how Sprint paid Clear money to reduce their stock holdings.

[Rawvega]

It is a confusing scenario if one doesn't keep up with this drama on a regular basis. Reading the ignorance over this development on Engadget is fairly amusing.

 

Sent from my Mean Evo 3D using Tapatalk 2!

[moss1966]

Sold out all my shares of CLWR today on the news. (In at 1.28 out at 1.19)

 

My gut feeling is that DISH is going to team up with Sprint when they get approval from FCC on spectrum this summer.

Sprint is on Dish's side in filings with FCC and T-Mobile and Metro PCS are fighting the Dish new spectrum approval req.

 

If Sprint partners up with Dish the CLWR stock should tank ??? Then jump, when some one buys out CLWR ?

 

We will see ?

 

Cheers.

[ericdabbs]

Why would

Sold out all my shares of CLWR today on the news. (In at 1.28 out at 1.19)

 

My gut feeling is that DISH is going to team up with Sprint when they get approval from FCC on spectrum this summer.

Sprint is on Dish's side in filings with FCC and T-Mobile and Metro PCS are fighting the Dish new spectrum approval req.

 

If Sprint partners up with Dish the CLWR stock should tank ??? Then jump, when some one buys out CLWR ?

 

We will see ?

 

Cheers.

 

Why would a Dish deal hurt Clearwire? I don't think Dish is trying to be a wholesale provider of LTE but rather be able to offer LTE service for its customers. It would simply be a network sharing deal where Sprint will help Dish build out their LTE network using their 2 GHz spectrum and Sprint gets a cut of the revenue to fund operational costs and cash for Sprint. I am sure Sprint will try to have terms like Lightsquared where they will say that they can have some access to the 2 GHz spectrum but I am not sure if Dish will bite.

 

Either way, Sprint is dependent on Clearwire for LTE capacity since they can deploy 20 and 40 MHz carriers which is way more impressive than what Dish can do for long term. At most Dish can deploy a single 20x20 LTE carrier or two 10x10 LTE carriers.

[ryry4ya]

I read some of these post .If sprint sold stock ,they can build out l t e quicker

 

Sent from my 1G EVO

[moss1966]

In my opinion , a deal with Dish would kind of replaces the deal they had with Lightsquared. It was obvious Sprint was more interested in lightsquared vs Clearwire. I do agree , that having both Clearwire and Dish is ideal case scenario . The bandwidth is very important today and much more important in the future !

[4GHoward]

Why don't LightSquared purchase voting shares in Clearwire? They have some money left.

[moss1966]

Looking at CLWR stock price this AM down 5%, seems like I made the right move selling .

[S4GRU]

Looking at CLWR stock price this AM down 5%, seems like I made the right move selling .

 

Not me. I'm clinging to my $1.61 purchased CLWR for dear life! I won't lose money! I won't!!!

 

However, technically, I don't lose money until I sell or they go under. Actually, I would probably make money if they went under. CLWR is worth a lot more in BK than $1.61. Sprint wouldn't allow them to go under any way. Unless they had a deal with Dish. Then they might.

 

Robert

[moss1966]

Hello Robert,

 

I owned CLWR stock at $10 and ended up selling at $ 7.50. Luck.... I did !!!

 

You are correct, Sprint can not let then go under ath this point ....but thery came very close in December 2011 , if things would have worked out with Lightsquared !

 

I do see the value in the spectrum holdings with LTE advanced and the huge bandwidth. (In 2013 -2014)

 

But lets face it , they wasted hundred of million $ on direct sales and stratagies that never worked out .

They could fire everyone at CLWR and still have Sprint as the largest customer and saved alot of $ !

 

The combo of Sprint ,Clwr and Dish would be excellent !

 

Cheers

[tt0h]

Or they may absorb CLWR to consolidate their position in dealing with Dish?