Clearwire CEO, Two Other Execs Suddenly Resign

Three top-level departures on a single day at a public company is typically a sign of something important, no matter what the stated reasons for the departures are. At Clearwire, Bill Morrow who has resigned as CEO and as a director of the board, citing personal reasons. The company also announced that Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer, and Kevin Hart, CIO, are both leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

John Stanton, chairman of Clearwire’s board of directors and former CEO of Western Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless, has been named CEO of Clearwire on an interim basis, effective immediately. Stanton will continue to serve in his role as board chairman. Erik Prusch, Clearwire’s CFO, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Hope Cochran, Clearwire’s senior vice president and treasurer, has been promoted to the position of CFO.

Given Clearwire's recent serious commercial and strategic disagreements with Sprint, which owns about 54 percent of the company, the resignation of all three Sprint members of the board last year, Clearwire's need for a few billions in additional investment by the end of the year, and its virtual halt to new network construction this year, it might appear that the board simply has concluded it has to change management in order to change course. The resignation of founder Craig McCaw as chairman in December 2010, and Intel executive vice president Arvind Sodhani this year (Intel was an early investor in Clearwire) now perhaps take on a different cast as well.

It is just speculation, but typically, when a company is facing a major quarterly financial miss, it is the chief financial officer who resigns. When there is a botched strategy, it is the CEO who leaves. But the departure of three "C" titles on the same day also suggests that a change of strategy is coming. Sometimes that level of departures indicates that a change of control is coming soon. Such changes typically take the form of takeovers or mergers that will replace the current management team.

In this case, a change of control seems unlikely, as Sprint already owns 54 percent of the company, though Sprint does not exercise management control. Though additional details are sure to emerge, the immediate conclusion one would draw is that Clearwire is about to change strategy in some key way, and that the three departing executives opposed the changes.

All of those executive departures, taken in isolation, might be explained. Taken as a pattern they suggest something significant is about to happen at Clearwire.