{"id":81479,"date":"2013-02-26T17:13:36","date_gmt":"2013-02-26T09:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/report-claims-sprint-clearwire-conspiring-to-lower-spectrum-value\/"},"modified":"2013-02-26T17:13:36","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T09:13:36","slug":"report-claims-sprint-clearwire-conspiring-to-lower-spectrum-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/report-claims-sprint-clearwire-conspiring-to-lower-spectrum-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Report Claims Sprint, Clearwire Conspiring to Lower Spectrum Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

[02-26-13] The true value of the wireless spectrum owned by Clearwire<\/strong> is two or three times higher than the value reflected in the price that cellular operator Sprint<\/strong> recently offered Clearwire to acquire the spectrum assets, according to an independent study published Feb. 26 by Information Age Economics (IAE)<\/strong>.      
\n   IAE explained that Sprint\u2019s $2.97-a-share offer for Clearwire represented a value of $0.21 per MHz-POP for Clearwire\u2019s spectrum. In the study, IAE states that a more appropriate range for the value of Clearwire\u2019s spectrum would be between $0.40 and $0.70 per MHz-POP based on comparable recent transactions and broadband market forces.<\/p>\n

   Crest Financial Ltd. <\/strong>commissioned the IAE study and attached it to a filing it recently submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which also claimed that Sprint\u2019s valuation of Clearwire failed to take into account that Clearwire\u2019s 2.5 GHz Band is Sprint\u2019s only remaining option to keep pace with national competitors Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. 
\n   Crest Finanical\u2019s interest in the matter stems from its current 8.34 percent ownership of Clearwire\u2019s outstanding Class A stock. The company recently sued Sprint and Clearwire\u2019s board of directors for conspiring to intentionally lower the value of Clearwire\u2019s high-speed, broadband spectrum so that it could acquire Clearwire at an artificially depressed price. 
\n   In its lawsuit, Crest stated that, \u201cSprint\u2019s intentions are to the financial detriment of Clearwire\u2019s minority shareholders, and contrary to the commercial interests of the public.\u201d
\n   Crest\u2019s FCC filing also contends that the proposed Sprint\/Clearwire merger would harm the public interest at a time of spectrum scarcity. \u201cCrest contends that FCC approval of the proposed merger would delay spectrum deployment and exacerbate \u2018spectrum crunch\u2019 at a time of severe scarcity,\u201d the company said in the filing. \u201cThe merger would contradict the FCC\u2019s stated mission to maximize spectrum availability for public consumption. What\u2019s more, it would place the country\u2019s largest remaining spectrum portfolio in hands least equipped, by past example, to serve the best interests of the United States and its wireless consumers.\u201d 
\n   Clearwire initially made its intention to sell off a portion of its 4G spectrum to Sprint known on a September 2011 conference call, during which the company\u2019s CFO Hope Cochran said Clearwire gained strong momentum after launching its 4G wireless services, but not enough to generate sufficient cash reserves and prevent cost-cutting measures. The company nixed its plans to announce a formal spectrum sale after obtaining financing deals and settling a pricing dispute with its majority owner and largest wholesale customer Sprint Nextel.
\n   At the time, Cochran said that the company would consider an offer made by interested buyers if the right opportunity arose. \u201cThe spectrum is a great asset, and we have a lot of it. It would be difficult to utilize all of it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had previously considered selling spectrum but ended up not needing thanks to friendlier debt markets. We understand that it is becoming more apparent that spectrum is a scarce resource and that these assets are rising in value.\u201d
\n   Cochran added that even with the spectrum obtained by the merger, AT&T would still be left with shortages. \u201cEither separate or together, there\u2019s still a spectrum constraint situation. That\u2019s something we can help. We understand our relationship with Sprint may lead some to believe we\u2019re in competition, but Clearwire has been trying to transform into the \u2018Switzerland of capacity\u2019 and we hope to provide spectrum to any carrier that needs it. We have started supplementing the WiMax 4G technology that well sell to Sprint with the LTE technology used by Verizon Wireless and AT&T,\u201d she said.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[02-26-13] The true value of the wireless spectrum owned by Clearwire is two or three times higher than the value reflected in the price that cellular operator Sprint recently offered Clearwire to acquire the spectrum assets, according to an independent study published Feb. 26 by Information Age Economics (IAE).          IAE explained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}