Two minority investors in Clearwire have publicly rejected majority shareholder Sprint Nextel’s US$2.90 per share offer for the remaining 49% of the wireless venture.
Crest Financial and Mount Kellett Capital Management – which hold 6.2% and 3.6%…
Two minority investors in Clearwire have publicly rejected majority shareholder Sprint Nextel’s US$2.90 per share offer for the remaining 49% of the wireless venture.
Crest Financial and Mount Kellett Capital Management – which hold 6.2% and 3.6% stakes respectively – came out strongly against Sprint’s offer, which values the 49% stake at US$2.1bn.
In statements Mount Kellett said that the offer “grossly” undervalued Clearwire while Crest pledged to “protect the rights of Clearwire shareholders against unfair dealing by Sprint and other parties”.
Following Sprint’s bid on 13 December shares in Clearwire shot up above the offer price of US$2.90 closing at US$3.16. Today Clearwire peaked at US$3.15.
Mount Kellett said the WiMax enterprise’s spectrum was worth between US$15bn and US$18bn, and argued that the true value of Clearwire’s stock was US$6.30 per share – at that price the remaining stake would cost Sprint around US$4.6bn.
On 11 December when information first leaked that Sprint was in discussions with Clearwire its shares closed at US$2.68.
Sprint itself is set to be acquired by Japan’s Softbank for US$20.1bn, expected to close in mid 2013. Before Softbank’s interest in Sprint became public, Clearwire shares were trading significantly lower – they closed at US$1.30 on 10 October after trading as low as US$0.90 in July.
