Thursday, December 21, 2006

Clearwire back in the frame for an early 2007 IPO

Clearwire Corp planned to IPO earlier this year when it looked to raise around $400 million, then chipmaker Intel and cell phone manufacturer Motorola pumped nearly $900 million into the company.

It has legendary telecom executive Craig McCaw at the helm, years ago, McCaw cobbled together the U.S.'s first nationwide cellular empire, which he sold to old AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. Clearwire's shares are expected to be listed under symbol CLWR.

Another contender in the WIMAX space again going for an early IPO is NextWave, expected to trade under the symbol WAVE. Both companies hope eventually to make their money, at least in part, from building out WiMAX networks.

Market researcher Gartner Dataquest expects the North American WiMAX services market to swell from 30,000 connections in 2006 to 21.2 million by 2011.

On Sept. 21, wireless broadband gear maker Riverbed Technology priced above its expected range, and the company's shares have rallied over 200% since, indicating strong investor appetite for wireless broadband-related stocks.

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