Sprint and Clearwire end partnership

Well, it was fun while it lasted, eh? It seems that Sprint and Clearwire, those two young lovers who were seen doing the WiMAX courtship dance not too long ago, have decided to part ways. The reasons given for the split were the "complexities of the transaction" and the recent outing of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, both of which made it difficult for the two companies to reach a final agreement for the partnership. While we can understand the logistical difficulties that the two companies must have faced, this still comes as a shock, given the fact that we were discussing merger rumors this time last week. While Sprint has been hurting as of late, the news probably comes as a bigger blow to Clearwire, which will now have to face the harsh financial realities of building a WiMAX network alone. No word yet on how this might affect Sprint's ambitious WiMAX deployment plans, though the outlook doesn't look too good.

For more on the severed alliance:
- see this Wall Street Journal article (sub. req.)