Verizon/Alltel Deal to Finally Close |
| Friday, 02 January 2009 | |
|
Big business deals have an unfortunate tendency to drag on, lingering for months or longer in legal limbo while the public awaits finality. Luckily, such is not the case for Verizon and Alltel, whose merger is set to close only slightly behind schedule on January 9th. The deal was originally planned to close in December, but the review took longer than planned and things had to be pushed back. In order to complete the deal, Verizon also had to agree to sell assets in regions where Verizon and Alltel coverage overlap. The completed deal is costing Verizon $5.9 billion and they are also assuming over $22 billion in debt that Alltel had accrued - but don't worry, they have apparently managed to secure $17 billion in financing from unnamed companies. Verizon will become the nation's largest wireless carrier, with about 78 million subscribers between Verizon and Alltel. As we saw with Sprint and Nextel several years ago, once a deal is complete it can still take a significant amount of time for some aspects of the merger to go into effect - it took years for Sprint to incorporate Nextel's billing system with theirs - so the completion of this deal does not mean that Verizon and Alltel will immediately be one seamless company. Stay tuned for further details on the merger such as rate changes (Alltel currently doesn't charge if you go over your 5GB broadband limit, but that is likely to change at some point) coverage areas, etc.
Discuss the merger and what it will - or won't - bring at the EVDO Forums |
|
| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 September 2009 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Mac EVDO
