Clearwire, the US WiMax company, has announced the resignation of three of its board of directors, Daniel Hesse, Keith Cowan and Steven Elfman.
All three – senior executives at 51% owner Sprint Nextel – had been nominated as directors by Sprint Nextel,…
Clearwire, the US WiMax company, has announced the resignation of three of its board of directors, Daniel Hesse, Keith Cowan and Steven Elfman.
All three – senior executives at 51% owner Sprint Nextel – had been nominated as directors by Sprint Nextel, which owns a 51% stake in the company.
Sprint Nextel decided that the three would stand down in light of a ruling in the sports equipment manufacturer American Needle vs. the National Football League (NFL) case in May.
In a nutshell, American Needle sued the NFL saying it used monopoly status as one body, as opposed to 32 teams, to deprive the company an opportunity to sell replica kit.
With regards to Clearwire and Sprint Nextel, Hesse, Cowan and Elfman were all senior employees of Sprint Nextel and directors of Clearwire. It was feared that they might be accused of driving Clearwire’s corporate policy to favour Sprint Nextel.
So to maintain an arm’s length relationship with Clearwire, Sprint Nextel asked the dual role executives to stand down, in order to allow independent appointees from Sprint Nextel to join the board of Clearwire.
Clearwire’s board structure allows for 13 members, seven of which Sprint has the right to appoint. The remaining four Sprint appointees to the Clearwire board are unchanged, and Sprint reserves the right to appoint new members to the Clearwire board at a later date.
