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FCC OKs Verizon’s $28 Billion Alltel Acquisition And Sprint-Clearwire Deal

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As expected, the FCC has approved two major wireless deals: Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel (NYSE: AT), thereby creating the country’s largest wireless carrier, and Sprint’s plan to spin off and merge its WiMAX network with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). The approvals aren’t much of a surprise from an agency that’s already approved other major wireless mergers during this term.

SEE ALSO: FCC Approves White Space Use For Wireless Broadband

The FCC voted 5-0 to approve Verizon’s $28 billion purchase of Alltel, Yahoo reports. The agency’s two democrats dissented on some points, but eventually gave the green light to Verizon’s plan to pay $5.9 billion and assume $22.2 billion of Alltel’s debt. The FCC made some stipulations to the deal and is requiring Verizon (NYSE: VZ) to honor Alltel’s existing roaming agreements for the next four years. It’s also requiring Verizon to maintain the same roaming rates, divest service in 100 markets, and contribute to e911 accuracy and the Universal Service Fund.

The FCC also unanimously approved the plan to combine Sprint’s Xohm network with Clearwire, Yahoo reports. Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and a group of cable companies coughed up more than $3.2 billion to invest in the $14.6 billion venture. Under the deal, Sprint (NYSE: S) will own 51 percent of the new company and existing Clearwire shareholders will retain about 27 percent.

In other news, Alltel released some third-quarter results that will likely please its newly approved suitor. Revenues hit $2.5 billion, a 10 percent increase from a year ago, while the company reported a $55.2 million loss, due to costs following the deal that took the company private a year ago. Alltel also added more than 1 million gross customers during the quarter, a 28 percent increase from last year. Overall, the company netted an additional 335,152 customers during the quarter. Average data revenues per user jumped 42 percent from a year ago to $8.99. Release.

Nov 4, 2008 6:30 PM ET

Posted In: Legal, Regulatory, FCC, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Companies, Alltel, Clearwire, Sprint, Verizon

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