Sprint CEO Hesse May Buy More Strategic Clearwire Stakes

Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Dan Hesse said he may seek to buy out corporate investors in wireless venture Clearwire at the right price. Clearwire’s other corporate investors have lost their interest in the company, Hesse said. Clearwire’s corporate investors include Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable. Hesse said he doesn’t need 100 percent of Clearwire because Sprint’s current partnerships give it access to the spectrum it needs until 2014. “We just never made an offer to buy all of Clearwire, that’s just not on the table,” Hesse said. “We don’t need to do anything, we have a commercial arrangement with Clearwire, we have a contract and they provide us with WiMax 4G service and they are beginning to build out LTE 4G services.”