After SoftBank acquired Sprint this week, rumors swirled that the company would also be interested in acquiring Clearwire -- sending Clearwire stock soaring. Those rumors were shot down however, insiders insisting that SoftBank will need much of the next year to settle into the Sprint deal. Interestingly though, Sprint has moved quickly to take majority control of Clearwire using the promise of future SoftBank cash to pay Craig McCaw $100 million for his 5% stake in Clearwire, bringing Sprint's ownership to 50.8%.

Sources are now telling numerous news outlets that a Sprint/Softbank full acquisition of Clearwire could happen in time, but only after the two companies have time to properly digest their new deal. Both companies seem fairly clearly worried that Clearwire might have not been available by then, with the company likely eyeballing a potentially partnership or even acquisition by Dish.

The move comes after a highly contentious few years between Sprint and Clearwire, which saw Sprint taking a lot of time trying to separate itself from Clearwire and build its own LTE network. Now that Sprint has a sugar daddy and is going to be on sound financial footing, the game has apparently changed.