Staying with telecom following yesterday's FierceWireless' Top 15 mention, here's an intriguing story concerning San Diego-based NextWave Wireless.

A decade ago, the company bid $4 billion for a big package of wireless spectrum licenses--but then filed for bankruptcy before paying for them. The FCC promptly reclaimed and resold the licenses, triggering a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court. NextWave prevailed under bankruptcy law and ultimately acquired the valuable asset, with a footprint covering over 251 million people--most of the United States.

Now the company has retained Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank to explore selling the spectrum--news that jumped the stock 30%.

Says CEO Allen Salmasi (ex-Qualcomm): " Monetizing the value of our substantial spectrum assets would allow us to further strengthen our balance sheet, retire debt, and continue the commercial introduction of a wide range of innovative wireless broadband and multimedia solutions." The company seeks to "engineer the future of mobile multimedia"--stay tuned.

While Dan Hesse continues to straighten out Sprint, his most recent alma mater, Embarq, posted a 33% first quarter profit increase despite lower revenue and continuing landline decline. Cost-cutting plus upticks in high-speed Internet and satellite business lifted profits, but the telco is still lowering its full-year outlook.

And Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeffrey Bewkes is splitting off the company's cable unit to concentrate on the film and TV businesses, an accretive move that may generate $3.8 billion in valuable stock-repurchase cash--and advance the break-up of the media giant.

Jeff Heilman

5/1/08