Motorola's purchase of Clearwire's NextNet Wireless infrastructure company may squeeze competitors Airspan and Alvarion since the acquisition makes Motorola the sole provider of WiMAX equipment to Clearwire, the second largest holder of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the U.S. This position could quickly propel the vendor's leadership position. Intel and Motorola are investing $900 million into Clearwire, with Intel contributing $600 million. Motorola said it is paying an unspecified portion of the extra $300 million going to Clearwire and paying an additional undisclosed sum to buy Clearwire's hardware business. Does this big financial commitment from Intel and Motorola into Clearwire mean Sprint Nextel is probably not going to deploy WiMAX? Sprint has been testing Motorola's WiMAX solution. Would it want to buy from Motorola if it is going to have such close ties with Clearwire?
To read more about Motorola's purchase of NextNet:
- check out this Wall Street Journal summary