Crest urges changing Clearwire minority vote threshold

Crest Financial, an investor in Clearwire, said that the voting threshold for approval of Sprint Nextel’s purchase of Clearwire should exclude strategic investors such as Comcast and Intel.

Strategic investors Intel, Comcast and Bright House Networks have already committed to vote their collective 26 percent of the minority shares in favor of the deal at a special meeting of shareholders scheduled for Friday, May 31. Crest, which is leading a proxy battle against the deal, argued that the strategic shares are "pledged to support Sprint regardless of the alternatives available" and that Sprint is obliged to purchase these shares even if it loses the Clearwire vote. Crest, which owns roughly 8 percent of Clearwire's public shares, said that "for all intents and purposes these are Sprint shares, and their votes should not be counted as minority approval." Crest also urged Clearwire shareholders to vote against the deal.