NextWave, Clarity seek pact for spectrum deals
biz.yahoo.com
Reuters
Friday May 30, 12:17 pm ET
PHILADELPHIA, May 30 (Reuters) - NextWave Telecom Inc.
(Other OTC:NXLC.PK - News) on Friday sought bankruptcy court
permission to forge a partnership with venture capital firm Clarity
Partners LP to explore the purchase of up to $150 million in new
wireless airwaves capable of handling new generation services.
NextWave, which is in talks to
sell about 20 percent of its
wireless airwaves to Cingular
Wireless, said it has been
actively mulling the purchase
of other airwaves that would
complement its existing
holdings, and make easier its
plans to deploy a nationwide
broadband wireless service.
Wireless companies have
been upgrading the capacity
of their networks to handle new services such as wireless data
and video services which can be bountiful profit-makers.
NextWave, which is in bankruptcy protection and recently won a
long court battle to keep the wireless licenses, said it has studied
several alternatives that would allow it to efficiently use their
spectrum licenses, "including selling, leasing or swapping some
of their spectrum, and possibly supplementing their licenses with
the acquisition of complementary spectrum."
Clarity, based in Beverly Hills, California, is a private equity firm
focused exclusively on investments in the communications and
media industries.
If the proposed partnership with Clarity is approved by the
bankruptcy court, NextWave said the private equity firm would
form and fund an acquisition vehicle, IPCom, to acquire spectrum
suitable for the deployment of broadband wireless service.
The companies aim to develop an acquisition strategy by July 31.
The total sum of organizational and operational expenses of
IPCom would not exceed $150 million. NextWave would pay
Clarity an initial work fee of $1 million, NextWave said in a filing
with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New
York.
NextWave, meanwhile, continues talks to sell some of its wireless
spectrum to Cingular, the No. 2 wireless carrier behind Verizon
Wireless, for about $1.5 billion in cash, sources close to the talks
said. A deal could come as early as next week, the sources said.
NextWave would maintain spectrum with nationwide coverage,
but would provide Cingular a slice of airwaves, the source said.
Cingular is a joint venture of BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News)
and SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - News)
(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington) |
