UPDATE 1-Clearwire shareholders back Sprint venture
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O) said on Thursday its shareholders had voted to approve its proposed high-speed wireless joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) that includes an investment of $3.2 billion from cable, Web and chip partners.
Analysts had widely expected the vote, which was the last remaining hurdle for the deal, to be in favor of the venture, which will take on the Clearwire name. The venture would build a network based on WiMax, an emerging high-speed wireless technology.
Clearwire, which has the consent of the majority of its lenders, said it expects to amend and restate its credit agreements shortly to permit the deal.
In early May Clearwire and Sprint announced plans for a $14.5 billion venture that they hope would give them a head-start on AT&T Inc (T.N) and Verizon Wireless in developing the next generation of wireless data services.
As part of the deal, five strategic partners are investing a combined $3.2 billion in the venture. They include Intel Corp (INTC.O), Google Inc (GOOG.O), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) and Bright House Networks.
It wasn't immediately clear why shares of both Clearwire and Sprint were down sharply following the news.
Clearwire fell 23 percent to $4.46 at mid-afternoon on Nasdaq. Sprint dropped 20 percent to $1.50 on New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Richard Chang)
