Sprint Nextel And Clearwire Announce $15 Billion Deal

Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have joined forces to create a single company worth just under $15 billion.

The aim of the collaboration is to create a nationwide “WiMax” mobile wireless network with an ultimate goal of blanketing North America with WiFi access.

If you’re wondering why all this sounds a little familiar it might be because the two companies announced something similar in July of last year. Clearwire and Sprint agree to team up and form a WiFi alliance in the Summer of 07 but scrapped the deal in November citing “the complexities of the transaction and the departure of (Sprint CEO) Gary Forsee” as the reason why the two companies got cold feet.

While the new communications company will be named Clearwire, Sprint Nextel will own the majority of the company with a 51 percent stake. The company will see a $3.2 billion investment from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse Networks but will also receive an investment from John Stanton-led Trilogy Equity Partners. Existing Clearwire shareholders will own approximately 27 percent of the company and the five named investors will acqquire approximately 22 percent.

Experts say the deal could help Clearwire immensely. The five year old company has yet to turn a profit and reported a $727.5 million net loss last year with stocks dropping 8.7 percent since the deal was scrapped in the beginning of November.