Clearwire shares fall after downgrade

NEW YORK Aug 10 (Reuters) - Shares of wireless service provider Clearwire Corp fell 3 percent on Friday after Macquarie Capital recommended investors sell the stock on concerns about funding.

Clearwire shares were down 6 cents at $1.56 on Nasdaq after Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithen downgraded the stock to underperform citing "significant liquidity risk" and worries that options for new funding were limited.

Smithen downgraded the stock to "underperform" the morning after Clearwire's biggest shareholder Sprint Nextel priced a $1.5 billion debt offering and said potential uses for the proceeds could include funding for Clearwire.

But Smithen still said that he thinks Clearwire, which has said it has enough funding for 12 months, would be "unlikely" to get new funding or to find a buyer for spectrum it is not using. And absent either of these events "the shares are likely to drift lower" the analyst said in a research report.

Investors had pushed up Clearwire shares 18 percent on speculation that Dish Network Corp had bought roughly $400 million of Clearwire debt.

Smithen said that he believes Dish has bought Clearwire debt but added that the recent share price increase only made the timing better for the sale of Clearwire shares.

"A debt position yielding (15 percent plus) isn't a bullish call on Clearwire equity" and "doesn't solve Clearwire's $1.5.-$2bln funding shortfall," Smithen said.