Clearwire raises $920M in financing

Clearwire should have finally calmed analysts' fears over adequate funding for the company as it continues to roll out its mobile WiMAX network. Clearwire said it raised, through a subsidiary, an additional $920 million in debt financing.

The debt financing, made possible through a pricing of 12 percent secured notes due in 2015, means that the company has raised a total of around $2.8 billion through debt and equity financing during the past few weeks. In addition to the $920 million, Clearwire confirmed earlier this month it will raise around $1.56 billion in new equity financing from strategic investors, including Sprint Nextel. The company also recently had a debt offering of $1.85 billion in senior notes, which was used to pay off an existing $1.4 billion credit facility.

Earlier this year, the company said it needed between $2 billion and $2.3 billion to carry out its plan of having 120 million POPs covered under its mobile WiMAX network by the end of 2010.

"With this latest tranche of additional funding, we have not only exceeded the amount of capital that we have previously stated we needed to fully fund our business plan, but we have also secured additional capital that will allow us to expand more aggressively by covering more people, and with more capacity than we had previously planned," Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement.

For more:
- see this release [1]
- see this Reuters article [2]

Related articles:
Clearwire trumpets market launches, wholesale relationships [3]
UPDATED: Clearwire confirms $1.5B in new funding [4]
Clearwire lighting up 11 new WiMAX markets in Q4 [5]
Clearwire CEO: 'We're in the sweet spot' [6]
Clearwire to launch 25 markets by year-end [7]

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