Sidecut Reports

We are still digging up details and background but according to several reports including this story from Bloomberg Businessweek legendary cellular pioneer Craig McCaw is set to resign as chairman of Clearwire on Friday.

Just pure guessing (and no inside information) would lead us to surmise that some significant transfer of power (and a likely infusion of new funding) is happening at the top of Clearwire, and whatever that is, perhaps those who are bringing the new money in don’t want the heavy presence of McCaw around? We are still waiting to hear the reasons behind Sprint’s recent board nominations of some industry heavyweights including longtime telephony leader Hossein Eslambolchi, and maybe this is part of the machinations. In the meantime, here’s some video of Craig McCaw talking about Clearwire at a CTIA show a while back. Watch this space for more info Friday!

Nascent national WiMAX wireless provider Clearwire announced plans to raise $1.1 billion via a “debt offering” that will be used for “general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures.” Sidecut unofficial translation: “We’re borrowing some money to keep the lights on and finish building the towers we’ve already started.”

Sidecut readers know we can explain technical network underpinnings, but when it comes to figuring out just who will lend Clearwire this dough and what part of the company they get in exchange — read the press release yourself and let us know what you think. We know from our mailing list that there are lots of financial types out there, so now it is time to step forward and show us how smart you are — send us an email to kaps @ sidecutreports.com and I will post the responses.

Clearwire also announced three new board nominees from Sprint, with one name standing out (to us, anyway, since we know him well) — Hossein Eslambolchi, former AT&T techno-wizard and an all-around smart smart guy when it comes to networks and business. The kind of guy who could be leading a big, new networking company. Hmmm.

There’s also a new home modem for Clear service with Wi-Fi built in. We’re still looking for that promised Cradlepoint device that is both a home router and a portable Wi-Fi pocketspot… maybe at CES?