Alltel sells out to investment firms for $27.5B
by Chris Ziegler 
posted May 21st 2007 at 1:27AM
It's been no secret that Alltel's been courting suitors for a few months now, and someone's finally bit the bait to the tune of $27.5 billion. A pair of firms, TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners (of Goldman Sachs), have hooked up to make the deal happen by offering $71.50 in cold, hard cash for each of Alltel's shares, a fair premium over the $65.21 each share commanded as of market close on Friday. Assuming the deal clears the usual regulatory hurdles -- which we're guessing will be considerably lower, since Alltel's buyer isn't a fellow carrier -- it thinks it can get everything squared away by Q4 of this year or Q1 of 2008.[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Filed under: Alltel
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
snow7791 @ May 21st 2007 2:06AM
well i glad that private companies bought them out. Chances are that things will stay the same. I am so glad that the evil empire didnt buy them out.
Steve @ May 21st 2007 8:48AM
The "evil empire" you're worried about doesn't need nor want them. Alltel's a third tier player operating on a CDMA network.
Brad @ May 21st 2007 9:41AM
A pair of investment firms have agreed to acquire Alltel Corp., the fifth-biggest U.S. wireless company and owner of the nation's largest geographic network, in a deal worth $24.8 billion.
The telecommunications company announced Sunday that it had signed an agreement to be acquired by TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and GS Capital Partners, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs. The investors agreed to pay $27.5 billion and take on Alltel's $2.7 billion in debt.
From the AP
Will @ May 21st 2007 9:22AM
haha, 3rd tier....how about driving through the southeast and see just how 3rd tier alltel is down here. they have hands down the best coverage and in quite a few areas have the majority of the market share...it would've been a huge gain in this area for verizon, much bigger than when they bought cellular one out down here. and no, i don't work for alltel...i work for another one of their competitors
Steve @ May 21st 2007 10:52AM
By third tier I meant that Alltel has a market cap of $24.16B with VZ at $123.86B, Sprint/Nextel at $62.18B . Hard to decifer the numbers out of AT&T and Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) but they are certainly far bigger than Alltel.
snow7791 @ May 21st 2007 12:31PM
Qoute "2. The "evil empire" you're worried about doesn't need nor want them. Alltel's a third tier player operating on a CDMA network." oh im sure that with alltel being the largest carrier geographical wise im sure that if verizion had the chance they wouldnt have bought them out. Nothing wouldnt be gained by doing that lol
elgee02 @ May 21st 2007 4:46PM
Snow... they are the "largest geographical" carrier mainly through roaming agreements with Sprint and... VERIZON WIRELESS!!! Whadya know?!
snow7791 @ May 21st 2007 11:39PM
well last time i checked the home native areas of the carriers it seems that by far alltel is the largest. http://alltel.com/corporate/media/media_kits.html. YOu know the area that alltel owns and has nothing to do with roaming agreements with anyone.
strunke @ May 22nd 2007 4:09PM
elgee02, That is incorrect. Alltel has the largest native network area wise. It has nothing to do with roaming partners. Alltel has the largest coverage area. Plain and simple....
Oh btw, third tier? Maybe size wise, but not quality of service etc. And CDMA is more advanced then GSM so I'm not quite sure where you are going with that.
deafmtguy82 @ May 27th 2007 2:52AM
That's sucks!!!! Back to square one, but I hope GSM stays alive otherwise it will be problem... Anyway, Verizon Wireless has many smaller cellular companies that has roaming agreements with and their map are not meant to be accurate which is really own by Verizon Wireless networks itself.. so that include many of other coverages from the companies' coverages as well therefore Western Wireless had 19 states that cover large regional areas and it is now merged with Alltel that makes 33 states.. Its not all WW had also have AMPS, CDMA, TDMA and GSM that already covered in large regional areas as well. So compare just the Alltel's coverage map with VZW and other companies map that makes almost even... Whatever you think I dont give any RAT! Alltel is the largest network period!
Judy Pittman @ Aug 9th 2007 5:26PM
As an alltel subscriber, I hope the new owners will again offer Nokia mobile phones. We have had tremendous trouble with their line of bluetooth capabable phones. Motorola or nothing has been their standard. Otherwise, I am happy with them and have been using their services from the beginning.