Clearwire shares fall after Google says to sell stake
Shares in Clearwire Corp
Clearwire, which is majority owned by Sprint Nextel
Since the cable operators have recently entered an agreement to resell mobile services from Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile service, the concern is that they will also sell their stakes in Clearwire. Before the Verizon deal the cable operators depended on Clearwire as their wholesale provider.
With no strategic reason to hold Clearwire shares, these ownership stakes could also make their way into the market, said Evercover analyst Jonathan Schildkraut.
According to a document filed with regulators on Friday, Google said it would sell the 29,411,765 shares it holds in Clearwire for $1.60 per share to Clearwire's other strategic investors, which also include Intel Corp
Clearwire shares fell 13 cents, or 6 percent, to $2.13 on Nasdaq after the news.
If the Google sale is conducted on Nasdaq, it will start on or about Feb 27.
Google invested in Clearwire in November 2008 as the search giant wanted to help kick off the company's plan to build a high-speed network.
(Reporting By Sinead Carew; editing by Mark Porter)
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