UPDATE 2-IPCS eyes delay to Sprint/Clearwire deal, posts loss

(Adds Sprint comment, analyst comment, share price)

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - IPCS Inc (IPCS.O) said on Tuesday it asked a court to prevent the close of Sprint Nextel Corp's (S.N) proposed venture with Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O) until after a court hearing on the deal later this month.

IPCS, a Sprint affiliate with rights to use the bigger company's brand, saw its shares fall as much as 29 percent after it also announced quarterly results on Tuesday that were much weaker than analyst estimates.

Some analysts expect the legal battles to lead to Sprint buying iPCS. Sprint has already been forced to buy several other affiliates in similar battles.

IPCS said the Clearwire venture, which U.S. regulators are expected to approve on Tuesday, would breach their affiliate agreement because it would involve an entity controlled by Sprint competing with iPCS in regions covered by the agreement.

IPCS said it requested a preliminary injunction against the closing of the deal because a hearing on the case was scheduled for Nov. 21, the day after the company expected Sprint and Clearwire to close their transaction.

Clearwire has scheduled a shareholder vote on the venture for Nov. 20.

In an e-mailed statement, Sprint described the motion as an overreaction and said it believed those issues should be addressed outside the scope of the close of the Clearwire deal.

It also noted the launch of the proposed venture's WiMax high-speed wireless service in iPCS regions is not planned for until "well after a final decision by the court."

But Soleil analyst Todd Rethemeier said the most likely outcome for the dispute was that Sprint would buy iPCS in an all stock deal.

"In terms of the lawsuits all the decisions recently have gone in iPCS's favor," he said. "I think the most likely outcome is an acquisition. They would probably do it with stock because Sprint doesn't have a lot of extra cash."

Also on Tuesday, iPCS said its third-quarter net loss widened to $7.5 million, or 44 cents a share, from $2.4 million, or 14 cents a share, a year earlier as it shouldered lower bad debt recoveries, higher customer service costs and increased roaming expenses.

Rethemeier said the higher customer service costs could be a bad omen for Sprint, which is set to report earnings on Nov. 7 because it handles iPCS customer inquiries and billing.

He said iPCS earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and legal costs were about $20 million, well below his estimate for $29 million.

"Customer growth was pretty good, but profitability was a lot lower than people were expecting," Rethemeier said.

IPCS revenue fell to $132.1 million from $142.1 million, even as iPCS added 20,400 new customers, compared with 10,000 net subscriber additions a year earlier. The company said it ended the quarter with 674,400 subscribers.

IPCS shares were down $4.18, or more than 25 percent, at $12.19 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Sprint shares were up 24 cents, or 6 percent, at $4.24 on New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Andre Grenon)