Brightpoint Jumps on FreedomPop Distribution Deal

Brightpoint Inc. (CELL), a distributor of mobile devices for phone companies, rose the most in more than 16 months after announcing a servicing agreement with discount wireless-provider FreedomPop.

Brightpoint advanced 7.4 percent to $5.63 at 12:56 p.m. in New York, after earlier jumping 18 percent for the biggest intraday gain since February 3, 2011. Shares of the Indianapolis-based company had declined 51 percent this year through yesterday.

The agreement lets Brightpoint handle inventory management, logistic services and transportation management for closely held FreedomPop, the companies said in a statement today. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

FreedomPop, which is funded by Skype Technologies SA founder Niklas Zennstrom, has said it plans to offer consumers as much as 1 gigabyte of free wireless data connections this year through a wholesale agreement with Clearwire Corp. (CLWR)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Moritz in New York at smoritz6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net