Clearwire, Sprint deal completed

Excerpts

from the blog

Clearwire and Sprint Nextel announced Friday that they've finally completed the merger of their wireless broadband companies, a process that began in May.

Under the deal, Clearwire takes over Sprint's WiMax assets, including Xohm, and obtains Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum.

The FCC approved the merger, valued earlier at $14 billion, Nov. 4.

The combined company keeps the Clearwire name and will be based at Clearwire headquarters in Kirkland. Let's hope it will quickly put the Xohm brand out of its misery.

Keeping the merged company in Kirkland is a big win for the Puget Sound region, as the company's expected to grow to 20,000 or 30,000 employees nationally.

Clearwire also is announcing a $3.2 billion infusion from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks.

More details will come during a news conference Monday.

As I've mentioned before, the merger's like a big reunion of Seattle-area wireless executives. Here's an excerpt from a May post, based on an interview with Clearwire Chief Executive Ben Wolff:

Long before Dan Hesse started running Sprint, he was running Redmond-based AT&T Wireless, the former McCaw Cellular Communications.

When Hesse and Clearwire Chairman Craig McCaw decided to pursue WiMax together, McCaw called in his former general, John Stanton, to help his current lieutenant, Clearwire Chief Executive Ben Wolff, lead the merged company.

So it's no wonder the biggest beneficiary of the deal could end up being the Puget Sound region.

If Clearwire grows according to the plans these guys hashed out, the company will be huge, on the scale of the other major wireless companies the area has spawned.

Wolff told me that ultimately the company could "get to 20,000 or 30,000 employees" nationally.

"This is a testament to the ongoing connection that Seattle has to the wireless industry, and certainly with us growing Clearwire in Seattle, that presence will increase fairly dramatically," he said.

This material has been edited

for print publication.

Brier Dudley's blog appears Thursdays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.