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Clearwire Secures USD 900 Mln from Intel, Motorola

Clearwire Corp., the broadband services company founded by Craig McCaw, has announced that it will receive USD 900 million in financing as a part of a series of transactions with Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc.

The announcement coincided with Cleanwire withdrawing its plan for a USD 400 million public offering filed in May.

Cleanwire, Motorola and Intel said that the transaction will accelerate the development and deployment of portable and mobile WiMAX networks based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard.

The transaction includes Intel Capital’s investment of USD 600 million as part of the USD 900 million private financing round and Motorola’s acquisition of Clearwire’s subsidiary NextNet Wireless, a provider of OFDM-based non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband infrastructure equipment.

Following closing of the transactions, Motorola will supply wireless broadband equipment for Clearwire’s existing and future networks globally. To hasten the proliferation of mobile WiMAX in PC clients, Intel will work to enable the inclusion of WiMAX chipsets in next generation mobile computing platforms. All three parties will contribute significant research and development resources to evolve NextNet Wireless’ pre-WiMAX technologies.

"Wi-Fi has become an essential part of people's lives. WiMAX is next. It is rapidly moving from a technology initiative to real deployments," said Sean Maloney Intel executive vice president and general manager, Mobility Group. "As Intel plans the integration of mobile WiMAX into our Centrino Mobile Technology notebook platforms, it is incredibly important to collaborate with the broadband wireless providers who will offer WiMAX services. This investment in Clearwire will lay the foundation for high-speed mobile broadband services across North America."

"Working together with Intel and Motorola to deploy mobile WiMAX technology will provide us with the benefits of a standards-based platform, which will further enhance our efforts to address this demand," said Ben Wolff, co-CEO of Clearwire.


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