Yet another Clearwire investor protests Sprint deal to FCC

They keep piling up... or is it piling on? This time it's Clearwire investor, New York-based Taran Asset Management which filed a set of petitions with the FCC, claiming that Sprint's proposed purchase of Clearwire "is not in the public interest."

Taran joins two other investors, Crest Financial and Mount Kellett Capital Management, in taking action and publicly denouncing the Sprint deal. Crest's lawyer said of the  management of both firms that, "By artificially pushing down the price of Clearwire spectrum, Sprint and Clearwire threaten to devalue future government auctions of spectrum." And Mount Kellett claimed that Sprint's offer was "grossly inadequate."

But Taran is going further. Taran said in its filing that Sprint's attempted takeover "is not in the public interest." That was the same language that Sprint used to the FCC to block AT&T's attempt to purchase T-Mobile.

Taran admitted in its filing that it turned Sprint's own language against them, but said that it "adequately describes the threat this transaction poses to the high-speed wireless broadband future of the United States."

The Sprint Clearwire deal is part of an interwoven set of deals in which Japanese SoftBank would invest billions in Sprint if Sprint were able to acquire Clearwire's spectrum.

Trouble mounts for Sprint-Clearwire-SoftBank deal (Speed Matters, Jan. 17, 2013)

Challenges to Softbank Sprint deal (Speed Matters, Jan. 10, 2013)

Clearwire Holder Turns Sprint's Own Language Against it in FCC Filing (WS Journal, Jan. 22, 2013)