NextWave Wireless, which never got off the ground as a PCS company after its long battle with the FCC to keep its licenses, is determined to rise again as a WiMAX operator. The company, which quietly went public last year, raised $355 million last week. Chairman and CEO Allen Salmasi and Douglas Manchester, a board member, each put up $50 million and that the company raised another $255 million in a private placement of stock. It looks like NextWave, which holds spectrum in the 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and won spectrum from last summer's AWS auction, is burning through a lot of money since it wants to do more than just launch a network. It's incorporating a Qualcomm-like strategy to push adoption of its own version of WiMAX, called WiMAXplus, through engineering and making its own chipsets. It needs to launch at least one market soon.
To read more about NextWave's new money:
- check out this article from Information Week