Verizon to buy Alltel

[LotusLord]

From the NY Times.


Verizon Communications agreed on Thursday to buy Alltel for about $28.1 billion, including the assumption of debt, creating the nation’s largest cellular telephone provider.

The deal catapults Verizon’s wireless business ahead of AT&T Wireless, which falls to No. 2, followed by Sprint Nextel and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile. The combination of Verizon, based in New York, and Alltel, based in Little Rock, Ark., will create a company with more than 80 million subscribers. Verizon adds coverage in Midwest and the South.

Under the terms of the deal, Verizon will acquire the equity of Alltel for $5.9 billion and assume $22.2 billion in debt. The companies hope to complete the transaction by the end of the year.

“This move will create an enhanced platform of network coverage, spectrum and customer care to better serve the growing needs of both Alltel and Verizon Wireless customers for reliable basic and advanced broadband wireless services,” Lowell C. McAdam, the president and chief executive of Verizon Wireless, said in a statement.

Shares of Verizon Communications were up about 5.4 percent in afternoon trading.

The transaction represents one of the quickest flips in corporate history: Alltel’s owners — TPG, formerly the Texas Pacific Group, and Goldman Sachs’s private equity arm — just completed buying the company last fall for about $27.5 billion.

The deal appears to be driven in part by Goldman Sachs and several of the large banks that financed the original deal seeking a way out of it. Citigroup, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and others were never able to sell all of the debt, which was sitting on their own books at a loss....

Full Article here

[jfa02]

But they will have to take the verizon dude out of the alltel wizard commercials leaving cingular and tmobile to fend for themselves!

[LotusLord]

This is almost definitely going to be a bad thing. Alltel customers can expect increased hoops to jump through, and worse customer service.

[Frozen]

Originally Posted by LotusLord

This is almost definitely going to be a bad thing. Alltel customers can expect increased hoops to jump through, and worse customer service.

It probably will be . Customer service will go to hell , no doubt about it . Worse case scenario . Alltel will switch to verizon's own data network . Then there will issues with treo and blackberry owners . Verizon's network is not stable enough to run data devices to that extent .

[Frozen]

Originally Posted by jfa02

But they will have to take the verizon dude out of the alltel wizard commercials leaving cingular and tmobile to fend for themselves!

So ? Att and Tmo will have a larger flow of customers migrating from alltel after verizon takes over . So as far as fending for themselves , I don't think it is that much of a issue .

[LotusLord]

There wont be anymore Alltel commercials. Everything will be rebranded Verizon. It'll be much like the original Cingular/att merger. Suddenly all the Alltel handsets will say Verizon instead. They'll merge the two networks.

[comiken205]

I use to be on Verizon. I found their network to be pretty stable. Alltell on the other hand will need a lot of money to bring it up to par. The good thing about Alltell is the rural areas that they covered. We use Alltel for our BB and such. Their service isn't the greatest, but it does what it is supposed to do.

I may think about dropping Sprint for Verizon now just because of the availability of the rural coverage. That is due to what I do for a living and where I do it. This may not be as bad as Sprint/Nextel merger. Didn't Sprint lose 1 million customers and Alltel gain 1 million customers in 1st or 2nd Qtr? I guess the wizard did something right. lol

[brandon]

lads, this is how verizon got to where they are now. i lived in southeast idaho for five years and had a local cdma carrier, but then verizon bought that provider and about 20 other local providers. if you can't beat them, buy them.

[comiken205]

I remember when ATT bought Cingular. Me and the guys at my office wanted Verizon to buy Alltel. We all had Verizon and it worked ok, but wanted more functionality from the network. Now that this is happening, I still think it'll be great for rural America.

[jfa02]

I am concerned for my daughter's boyfriensd who works as and ap analyst for Alltel in LRK hope he still has a job after its all said and done!