Intel Capital cuts listed holdings by 60%

The corporate venturing unit of US-based chipmaker Intel Corporation cut back its listing holdings by $586.2m, or 60.2% in the second quarter, as it exited or scaled down some big holdings.

The listed holdings of Intel Capital stood at $388m at the end of June, a filing with US regulator the Securities and Exchange commission said, which is down from $974.2m in its filing to the end of March.

The listed stocks of Intel Capital have now fallen to six down from 12 at the end of 2010, after it cut its listed holdings to eight in the first quarter of this year.

The significant reduction in Intel Capital’s listed portfolio has come as bid speculation has buoyed the weak trading of its second biggest listed holding, Clearwire, which was worth $107.5m at the end of June. Nasdaq-listed Clearwire’s share price rose 30.3% on Friday after media reports said Sprint Nextel, a US-based wireless operator, and the majority shareholder of Clearwire, was considering an acquisition of the company.

It is unlikely Intel would join Sprint Nextel in an acquisition. Intel’s June Clearwire holding had halved in value from $215m at the end of March and Intel Capital had 8 million shares less in the company in June than in March, the filing said, which followed another filing by Intel in May that said it would sell up to 10 million Clearwire shares.

Intel Capital originally invested $600m in 2006 to buy its stake in Clearwire, however after an initial public offering in 2007 the share price of the wireless company has fallen from $25 per share at listing to $3 per share today as it has run into balance sheet difficulties. In June Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, told Global Corporate Venturing the deal "had not been a financial success" although it had been a strategic win for Intel as it had forced competitors to fund its rival Long Term Evolution.

Intel Capital’s other holdings at the end of June, in order of size, were US-based cloud computing company VMware ($238m), US-based healthcare company Pacific Biosciences ($19.7m), Dutch-based semiconductor company ASM International ($10.8m), China-based technology services company HiSoft Technology ($9.7m) and Harmonic ($2.2m), the SEC filing for the period to the end of June said.

At the end of June Intel Capital did not own stock in US-based semiconductor company Micron, although this was the corporate venturing unit’s biggest holding at the end of March, then worth $516.2m. Bid speculation has linked Intel Capital’s parent, Intel Corporation, to an acquisition of Micron in recent weeks, which could suggest the Micron shares have been transferred within Intel.

Intel Capital has also exited its stake in US-based semiconductor company Photronics, which was worth $5m at the end of March.

The number of Intel Capital’s VMware, ASM and Harmonic shares were unchanged in the second quarter.