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Mar. 10, 2007

WiMAX services company Clearwire has sold 24 million shares of stock in its IPO (initial public offering) on Mar. 7.

The sale was done at an average of $23 to $25 per share.

On its first day of trading on Mar. 8, the stock closed down 1.9 percent to $24.52.

Clearwire provides broadband Internet access and VoIP (voice over IP) services in several dozen U.S. markets utilizing WiMAX technology.

Clearwire is the brainchild of Craig McCaw, a wireless billionnaire investor.

Although the company has received important amounts of venture capital, including $900 million from Intel and Motorola in 2006, the additional $600 million from this IPO will help the company continue to build and expand its wireless network.

McCaw comes away from the sale with 37.6 million Class A shares and 18.7 million Class B shares worth about $1.4 billion.

McCaw will retain a 49 percent voting interest in the company, while Intel and Motorola will have voting stakes of 30 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Based on the 161.9 million shares outstanding, Clearwire has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion.

Some financial analysts say the last-minute addition of 4 million shares to the IPO watered down demand a bit and kept the share price from climbing on its first day of trading.

Clearwire's IPO was underwritten by Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Wachovia, Bear Stearns, Citigroup Global Markets, Jefferies, Raymond James, ThinkEquity Partners and Stifel Nicolaus.

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Source: Wireless Week