Clearwire Corp.'s (CLWR) first-quarter loss widened as the
financially struggling wireless broadband provider saw its revenue
slip and total subscriber rolls fall.
Majority shareholder Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) has agreed to buy
the half of Clearwire it doesn't already own in a $2.2 billion
deal, and Clearwire's shareholders are slated to vote on the merger
May 21. Sprint has also agreed to provide up to $800 million in
financing to Clearwire.
Sprint owns more than 50% of Clearwire, but needs the majority
of other shareholders to back the deal.
For the latest quarter, Clearwire reported a loss of $227
million compared with a year-earlier loss of $181.8 million. On a
per-share basis, the loss was 33 cents compared with 44 cents a
year earlier, as the latest period had fewer shares
outstanding.
Revenue fell 1.4% to $318 million.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected a
loss of 25 cents a share on $304 million in revenue.
The company ended the quarter with 9.4 million total
subscribers, down 1.8% from 9.6 million in the prior quarter and
14% from 11 million a year earlier. The vast majority of
Clearwire's subscribers are wholesale customers from Sprint. The
declines in wholesale revenue and subscribers continued to stem
from Sprint's discontinuation of WiMAX-based plans in the latest
period.
Retail churn, or customer turnover, was 4.2% in the latest
quarter, down from 5% in the previous quarter, but up from 3.7% a
year earlier.
Total operating expenses fell 16%.
Class A shares closed Thursday at $3.31 and were unchanged after
hours. Through the close, the stock was up 15% so far this
year.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@dowjones.com
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