Alltel Tried to Buy Sprint Nextel Prior to Verizon Sale

[TNDan21]

Alltel Tried to Buy Sprint Nextel Prior to Verizon Sale

It has been revealed that Alltel Corp tried to buy Sprint Nextel prior to being swallowed up in turn by Verizon Wireless a couple of weeks ago. Speaking to the local Arkansas News Bureau, Alltel's CEO Scott Ford said that the company made three approaches towards Sprint Nextel, and even tried to buy T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless.

"We tried to buy Sprint three times, we tried to buy AT&T Wireless, we tried to buy T-Mobile," Ford told the newspaper. "Some of those times we went with partners, some of those times we didn't. We were doing everything we could to get to a national platform."

He blamed the credit crunch for the collapse of some of the talks.

"The credit markets fell apart and Sprint fell in the tank almost right on cue, but they fell so, they fell so totally apart that there wasn't really an opportunity to go get them either," Ford said.

Verizon Wireless recently agreed to acquire Alltel for $28.1 billion in stock and debt. The agreement comes just seven months after Alltel was sold to TPG Capital and a unit of Goldman Sachs Group in a $27.5 billion leveraged buyout.

Scott Ford - who earned over US$140 million in 2007 from taking the company private - said that he and Gov. Mike Beebe are working on setting up new business opportunities in Little Rock, where Alltel is headquartered to deal with expected redundancies following Verizon's purchase of the company.

Alltel Tried to Buy Sprint Nextel Prior to Verizon Sale

[Alienware_51]

Wow they tried buying at&t, thats crazy.

[larry]

Too bad because I think Alltel and Sprint would have been the best merger.

[Headintheclouds]

I would rather see Verizon get them than anyone else.

[Quint101]

Originally Posted by larry

Too bad because I think Alltel and Sprint would have been the best merger.

Probably the most seamless as well. Now there's a lot of limbo and discussion as to what will happen at the end of the year and beyond

[Eric47]

TBH...i dont see Verizon gaining alot from this deal. yes they will gain a larger network from this but so will the competition...not to mention its going to take at least a year to drudge through the long ___ list the DOJ is going to throw at them to comply to before the deal is ok'd

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by TNDan21

. "Some of those times we went with partners, some of those times we didn't. We were doing everything we could to get to a national platform."

That's not true. If they really wanted a national platform why did they let all the auction opportunities pass? Why didn't they buy many of the small carriers that are still floating around, some of them which have been swallowed by Verizon or AT&T? Making unrealistic approaches, such as trying to buy AT&T Wireless or T-Mobile are just wishing the impossible.

[spleck]

I tried to buy Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile too. It didn't work out.

Originally Posted by Eric47

TBH...i dont see Verizon gaining alot from this deal. yes they will gain a larger network from this but so will the competition...not to mention its going to take at least a year to drudge through the long ___ list the DOJ is going to throw at them to comply to before the deal is ok'd

Verizon was trading over $1billion in roaming costs with Alltel. Now it will be all theirs and they'll be getting roaming revenue that Alltel was getting from other carriers. Plus, instead of Alltels' customers roaming on VZW, they'll be PAYING VZW directly (nearly $8bil in yearly revenue)

I have a feeling that VZW is going to get away with a lot in this merger by way of the DOJ and FCC. I think a lot of people are going to be mad and complaining about it. VZW is using a number of increasingly valid arguments (at least from DOJ/FCC legal perspective), focusing on total amount of spectrum available (cellular, PCS, AWS, 700, ESMR). In the RCC merger, they lost Vermont because its really an undercovered state that couldn't afford to lose its GSM coverage, when they know VZW will still improve its CDMA coverage. Alltel is a rural carrier, but not THAT rural.

I think Alltel's license portfolio is their most valuable asset. VZW will probably manage to keep their choice of networks/licenses in any questionable areas (just as they're getting 10 MHz of cellular in VT in the one area they didn't already have).

[spleck]

Originally Posted by bobolito

That's not true. If they really wanted a national platform why did they let all the auction opportunities pass?

Alltel registered to bid, put money down, placed initial bids, and then partially into the auction, they withdrew. I think something happened. Perhaps it was talk of a merger with VZW.

Alltel was doing well enough that they would understand the costs of acquiring a national license in the auction with fantasies of discount rates. They fronted money to the FCC as required, which in itself costs money, so they weren't just trying to avoid ANY expenditures. I can't believe their forecasts and projections would have been so bad that in the middle of the auction they realized they couldn't afford it--they would have known beforehand. As such, it kind of makes sense that perhaps Alltel was on its own auction block at the time.

[Telekom]

Originally Posted by TNDan21

Alltel Tried to Buy Sprint Nextel Prior to Verizon Sale

It has been revealed that Alltel Corp tried to buy Sprint Nextel prior to being swallowed up in turn by Verizon Wireless a couple of weeks ago. Speaking to the local Arkansas News Bureau, Alltel's CEO Scott Ford said that the company made three approaches towards Sprint Nextel, and even tried to buy T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless.

"We tried to buy Sprint three times, we tried to buy AT&T Wireless, we tried to buy T-Mobile," Ford told the newspaper. "Some of those times we went with partners, some of those times we didn't. We were doing everything we could to get to a national platform."

He blamed the credit crunch for the collapse of some of the talks.

"The credit markets fell apart and Sprint fell in the tank almost right on cue, but they fell so, they fell so totally apart that there wasn't really an opportunity to go get them either," Ford said.

Verizon Wireless recently agreed to acquire Alltel for $28.1 billion in stock and debt. The agreement comes just seven months after Alltel was sold to TPG Capital and a unit of Goldman Sachs Group in a $27.5 billion leveraged buyout.

Scott Ford - who earned over US$140 million in 2007 from taking the company private - said that he and Gov. Mike Beebe are working on setting up new business opportunities in Little Rock, where Alltel is headquartered to deal with expected redundancies following Verizon's purchase of the company.

Alltel Tried to Buy Sprint Nextel Prior to Verizon Sale

At least it didn't try to buy the Catholic church like Microsoft

[WumpusVA]

Originally Posted by larry

Too bad because I think Alltel and Sprint would have been the best merger.

I agree. That would have been a fantastic merger.

[Eric47]

Originally Posted by spleck

Alltel registered to bid, put money down, placed initial bids, and then partially into the auction, they withdrew. I think something happened. Perhaps it was talk of a merger with VZW.

Alltel was doing well enough that they would understand the costs of acquiring a national license in the auction with fantasies of discount rates. They fronted money to the FCC as required, which in itself costs money, so they weren't just trying to avoid ANY expenditures. I can't believe their forecasts and projections would have been so bad that in the middle of the auction they realized they couldn't afford it--they would have known beforehand. As such, it kind of makes sense that perhaps Alltel was on its own auction block at the time.

you make valid points and some that arent...

i will say that ATT will score one way or the other...plan for all the areas that Alltel and VZW both had 850 mhz licenses (such as much of the Southeast in places) for those 850 licenses to goto ATT as well as the Alltel GSM roaming network that they had in place (assets and all)

yes Verizon will come out good on this, but not as good as they would like, and lets not forget, much of Alltel's network is so rural that is will not greatly impact the percentage of population that Verizon covers.

The biggest winner is the customer IMO...Alltel has been squatting on so much good 850 spectrum for so long and doing jack crap with a bunch of it. the consumers should prosper depending on the carriers that get some of these licenses and who uses them.

[TheNasaWildman]

Well from what I have been told by Verizon Wireless's Goverment Affairs Dept. they are planning on selling off some of their 900Mhz spectrum, & keep a vast majority of the 850 Mhz areas that the Alltel, & Verizon networks overlap due in large because of the penatration that the 850 Mhz allows. Here in the south if they convert their existing cells to the 850Mhz frequency they will just about double their total footprint in the southern coastal areas...As far as Alltel trying to buy out AT&T, & T-Mobile, I don't believe it. AT&T, & T-Mobile are way too much bigger... and the same goes with Sprint. They own too much fiber optic based Long Distance Lines... I can't see that happening either....That just don't make any sense. but now if Southern Linc Wireless was to buy the Nextell portion of their system I would believe that... Check out www.southernlinc.com & see for yourself if they dont have the assets to do such a partial buy out...

[Telekom]

Originally Posted by TheNasaWildman

Well from what I have been told by Verizon Wireless's Goverment Affairs Dept. they are planning on selling off some of their 900Mhz spectrum, & keep a vast majority of the 850 Mhz areas that the Alltel, & Verizon networks overlap due in large because of the penatration that the 850 Mhz allows. Here in the south if they convert their existing cells to the 850Mhz frequency they will just about double their total footprint in the southern coastal areas...As far as Alltel trying to buy out AT&T, & T-Mobile, I don't believe it. AT&T, & T-Mobile are way too much bigger... and the same goes with Sprint. They own too much fiber optic based Long Distance Lines... I can't see that happening either....That just don't make any sense. but now if Southern Linc Wireless was to buy the Nextell portion of their system I would believe that... Check out www.southernlinc.com & see for yourself if they dont have the assets to do such a partial buy out...

No cellular/PCS operation in the US uses 900 Mhz. They don't have any 900 Mhz spectrum!

[spleck]

Originally Posted by Telekom

No cellular/PCS operation in the US uses 900 Mhz. They don't have any 900 Mhz spectrum!

I would assume 1900 MHz. Nextel has 900 MHz SMR spectrum.

[spleck]

Originally Posted by TheNasaWildman

Check out www.southernlinc.com & see for yourself if they dont have the assets to do such a partial buy out...

From what I've read, it seems that Southern Company has no intentions of wireless expansion at all.

[cheddar]

Originally Posted by spleck

From what I've read, it seems that Southern Company has no intentions of wireless expansion at all.

That they'll admit too. If Sprint wants to sell Nextel cheap. I bet Southern would talk to them.

[spleck]

Originally Posted by cheddar

That they'll admit too. If Sprint wants to sell Nextel cheap. I bet Southern would talk to them.

Southern would probably be forced to make a move if Sprint put Nextel up cheap in a way that would eliminate the iDEN network. If Nextel's iDEN goes away, equipment volume drops and it could get harder for Southern to maintain everything and get cheap handsets.

At the same time, if someone took a good shot at buying Nextel and grabbing the 700 MHz public safety spectrum to start a venture targeted at Nextel's core market of business and safety, then Southern might even consider selling their network if they could get the reliable service they want.

[NickyHavok]

Originally Posted by Alienware_51

Wow they tried buying at&t, thats crazy.

Yeah, that is crazy. But it's always been the little guys that try the risky stuff. Only a few succeed, but they are better off for it. Kind of sad that Altell is going to go bye bye now... No more roaming on their networks I'm sure...