Agent_haito
join:2002-09-20
Winston Salem, NC | Hmm
had this been in the works for awhile? I never knew Alltel was on the block... |
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JSRoman
Premium
join:2005-03-10
Callahan, FL
| Ever since Alltel sold off it wireline access to Windstream and became purely a wireless company, they have had the For Sale sign up. Surprise it took so long.
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»www.seabee.navy.mil |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
2 edits |  Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
There has been a spate of companies going private recently, taking them out of the realm of public scrutiny of their finances.
This is good if the company uses that deemphasis from Wall St on quarterly results to make better long term decisions for the business.
But it could also be negative if the private equity owners use the lack of oversight to loot the assets and sell off pieces of the company. In that case the companies customers will be getting poorer service for their money.
The passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after the Enron fiasco has been part of the reason for all these companies going private. The requirements of that act has made it more cost effective for a company to get off the stock market and go private.
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NewMariner
join:2005-06-24 | Chop Block!
There was an article awhile back that stated they were trying to butter up to verizon, or cingular so that they would buy alltell...its been awhile..Im surprised it wasnt one of the major cell providers buying it.. |
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whocares
Premium
join:2003-07-26
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1 edit | duplicate reply-deleted
duplicate reply |
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whocares
Premium
join:2003-07-26
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| in todays paper,
saw this story this morning, & sent it into GOT NEWS site HERE,"Jazzy"
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Alltel Corp. to be bought out by two private equity firms
By TOM PARSONS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — 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 $27.5 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.
"This transaction delivers substantial and certain value to our shareholders while providing the company with long-term partners who share our commitment to our customers, employees and the communities we serve," Scott Ford, Alltel's chief executive, said in a news release.
"This transaction also ensures our customers can continue to rely on Alltel to deliver high-quality service and leading edge products and services."
The deal, if approved by shareholders and regulators, is expected to close during the fourth quarter of this year or the first three months of 2008, Alltel said.
Alltel has about 12 million cell-phone customers, mainly in the South, West and Midwest. That ranks it fifth in number of customers, after Cingular, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, but the company's service "footprint" is larger than any of those rivals, Ford said.
The agreement calls for the two investment firms to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Alltel for $71.50 per share in cash. According to Alltel, that represents a 23 percent premium over Alltel's share price before word of a possible buyout first appeared in the media on Dec. 29.
Trading in Alltel's stock closed Friday at $65.21, down 14 cents from the day before. The $71.50 per share buyout price would represent a premium of only about 10 percent over Friday's share price.
Ford said in a telephone interview that the buyout price is "a 10 percent premium over a price that clearly anticipated this outcome" after scores of articles had been written about Alltel's prospects in the first months of this year.
The announcement was the second in a week of a buyout of a corporation based at Little Rock to be taken private by the new owners. On Wednesday, data-management firm Acxiom Corp. announced it was to be acquired in a buyout worth about $2.25 billion.
Ford said in the phone interview that the Alltel deal resulted from "a very thoughtful, very careful, very thorough review" over several months by the Alltel board of the best options for assuring the company would be able to continue serving well both its customers and its shareholders.
"The shareholders got what we feel is the best deal we could have gotten for them," he said.
Ford said the company's headquarters would remain in Little Rock, and no changes were planned in staffing. The company has about 15,000 employees, he said.
"We're a pretty lean organization as it is," Ford said.
Alltel has streamlined in recent years, first selling its information system division in 2003 and, last year, spinning off its wireline business. That left Alltel as a pure wireless company. In its first-quarter earnings released early this month, Alltel reported that income from its continuing operations increased 34 percent to $225.4 million, or 63 cents per share, from $168.6 million, or 43 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue grew 13 percent to $2.08 billion from $1.84 billion.
Alltel has seen its growth driven by its "My Circle" calling plan, which allows free calling to any 10 numbers.
TPG Capital is the global buyout group of TPG, a private investment firm founded in 1992, with more than $30 billion in assets under management, according to the Alltel release.
GSCP is the "private equity vehicle" through which The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. conducts privately negotiated acquisitions.
hou.paper
On the Net:
»www.alltel.com
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IF WE were all on the Titanic,and there was 1 life boat left,then i would be the man lowering that boat |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
said by TKJunkMail  :The passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act » en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes-Oxley_Act after the Enron fiasco has been part of the reason for all these companies going private. The requirements of that act has made it more cost effective for a company to get off the stock market and go private. Sarbox has to rank among the most useless of legislation ever signed into law. There was simply no need for it. All of the people involved in the Enron fiasco, as well as in other corporate accounting scandals, were prosecuted just fine under existing laws. At best, Sarbox will simply move the fraud outside of the scope of the regulating authorities.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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decadent
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Piscataway, NJ | I am not sure how it helps an investor or former employee of Enron, that they were prosecuted. Most people care about lost money or jobs and do not care much about getting even. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by decadent :Most people care about lost money or jobs and do not care much about getting even. What happened to the investors was simply a bad case of not following common-sense investment advice. No one in their right mind should have their entire retirement portfolio invested in a single stock. If that means having to skip using your own company's 401k plan, then you do it.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. |
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
| Failure to launch
The fact that Alltel couldn't pimp themselves to one of the big 3 shows that they are getting played HARD. Obviously Sprint and Verizon have sweetheart roaming deals with them and could care less about their footprint. A polished turd is still a turd and no one wants to manage towers out in the sticks.
I suspect this group will hold on to them for a few years, then sell off the footprint piecemeal to Sprint/Verizon/US Cellular to avoid regulatory problems and to allow them to get the footprint and spectrum they want. It will be like a big private spectrum sale. |
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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI | reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
SOX sux.  |
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Gilitar
join:2000-11-20
Mobile, AL
2 edits | nevermind
nevermind |
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Homer J
Mmmm, Free Goo
join:2000-10-05
Springfield | Summary
Whoever wrote the summary needs to go back and look at the article. Altell is the 5th largest carrier by customers and has the largest geographical area, and is not 5th largest geographically. |
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PhoenixDown
-- Wants FIOS
Premium
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY
clubs:   | reply to pnh102
Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
Not every one is given a choice with their 401k... many companies force you to invest in the company stock until the shares mature.
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Mass Transit Sucks! |
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viperlmw
Premium
join:2005-01-25
 ·Qwest.net
| reply to pnh102
Beating up on Sarbanes-Oxley is a typical Right Wing attack on consumers, and doesn't have any significant impact on a company like Alltel. There are those that are just unhappy that the free ride on the backs of the consumer is over.
Flame away! |
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
| reply to NewMariner
Re: Chop Block!
because a polished turd is still a turd. Verizon and Sprint are laughing all the way to the bank. And ATT doesnt need to be saddled with a CDMA company. Their GSM footprint comes close to being as large as Alltels.
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"WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!" |
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soccerguy
join:2004-06-28
Seattle, WA | reply to pnh102
Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
You are fairly ignorant on the issues concerning investors, employees, and trading counterparties of Enron if that is what you believe. |
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emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| reply to decadent
In the absence of their money, I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find me an Enron employee who didn't take SOME comfort, and perhaps no small amount of glee, from seeing the people who stole that money go to jail.
wig
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Sometimes a paradox is just a paradox |
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emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| reply to pnh102
The number of non-employee investors in Enron was MUCH MUCH higher than the number of employees who were invested.
I wasn't an employee of Enron, and I didn't have my entire stock investment in Enron, but that doesn't change the fact that I lost all the money that I did have committed to it. And I lost it, not because of capricious market circumstances, but because of wrongdoing on the part of the corporate leadership.
If the captain runs the ship into an iceberg and everyone drowns, you don't blame the passengers because they didn't bring their own survival suit.
wig
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Sometimes a paradox is just a paradox |
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emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| reply to viperlmw
As a raging moderate who despises the extremes of the left and the right, I would agree that Sarbox has had unintended consequences and needs to be revisited. Like so many other really important and far-reaching laws that have been passed in the last eight years, it was written and rushed through much much too quickly and without the careful and deliberate consideration it warranted.
There needs to be some accountability, but the law as written is going to bite us on the ass.
wig
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Sometimes a paradox is just a paradox |
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