Intel's $600 million Investment In HypeMAX Paying Off

from the make-the-bubble-bigger dept

Intel’s throwing a lot of money at WiMAX — not just to fund its own efforts, but to almost singlehandedly prop up the market in an effort to ensure it will have some customers. It started a joint venture with a UK ISP to build a WiMAX network there, and has even funded rival WiMAX chipmakers. Those investments pale in comparison to its most recent one where it pumped $600 million into Craig McCaw’s Clearwire WiMAX operator. This huge investment negated the need for Clearwire to continue with plans to go public, after its IPO announcement raised a lot of questions. But it looks like Intel’s cash injection is already having its intended effect, as BusinessWeek anoints Clearwire as the next big thing in broadband access, taking all the as yet unproven claims about WiMAX to heart, without touching on any of the plethora of questions surrounding the company, its viability and the reception its IPO was getting on Wall Street. Which is just the kind of hype Intel likes for WiMAX, and was hoping its investment would generate.


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Comments on “Intel's $600 million Investment In HypeMAX Paying Off”

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22 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: This is juvenile

They make WiMAX chipsets. If there is no WiMAX providers, then there are not customers and therefore no need for the chipsets. They’ve already put a lot of money into the technology. They don’t want to see it just fall by the wayside.

I don’t see why anyone should be complaining. It is going to pur pressure on the traditional ISPs. WiMAX is young and still has a lot of potential, so the ISPs are going to have to start looking forward at how they are going to compete. And whenever companies compete, consumers win.

WirelessGuy says:

First spend, then fire

Interesting how this gets good press, then they state that they are firing 1,000 managers…

Don’t you hate that they save $1B by getting rid of humans to invest $600M in a product that will more than likely flop? Then more people will get fired and all of us technical people will end up working McDs….

JerseyRich says:

Life is Tough

If you’re good enough, you won’t get fired. Or, if you have bad luck, you might.

Even if you do, if you’re good enough, you’ll get another job soon. If you don’t or can’t, you probably suck (in one way or another).

Lesson here? Get skills, use them, be confident and capable, and you’ll never be out of work for long.

Jay says:

Get off your high horses

I am getting sick and tired of Tech dirt’s trashing clearwire. I am a clearwire customer and I am very happy with the service. I have not enountered any major problem since I signed up in January of this year. And It’s a whole lot faster than dial up.

So stop trashing Clearwire and give it a chance. I’m happy that a company like Intel sees the value of this company and other WiMax companies.

Tech Dirt, get off your high horses.

Brian says:

Re: Let me do the math for you.

If Intel corners the market in WiMax chips, they can sell them to computer retailers like Dell. So when someone gets a brand new laptop they are already hooked up for High-Speed internet wherever they go. (eventually) Clearwire is building the network, so Intel invested money in them… Get it now?

Intel Chips + Clearwire’s Network = WiMax = $$$

There ya go. As for Intel canning people to come up with the $, sorry to tell ya thats just life.

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