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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
| Re: Hmm 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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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC said by GOLFnSUN  :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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decadent
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Piscataway, NJ | Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC 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
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC 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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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC said by PhoenixDown :Not every one is given a choice with their 401k... many companies force you to invest in the company stock until the shares mature. You still have to sign up for the program. We have had such 401ks at my old jobs and I was never compelled to enroll in those plans.
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC said by PhoenixDown :Compelled? No - but its one of the few retirement vehicles left after the death of pensions. How so? There are plenty of funds outside of work into which people can invest for retirement.
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join:2004-06-28
Seattle, WA | 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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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC said by soccerguy :You are fairly ignorant on the issues concerning investors, employees, and trading counterparties of Enron if that is what you believe. So why don't you enlighten us as to what really happened?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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| | | | emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| 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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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC said by emptywig :The number of non-employee investors in Enron was MUCH MUCH higher than the number of employees who were invested. But again, doesn't this prove that people who invest should keep an eye into which companies their funds invest?
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| | | emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| 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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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| said by decadent :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. OK, the investors (stockholders) are the ones who elect corporate management? WHO ELSE would you have shoulder the risk of bad acts? You want the government to guarantee that your stock investments will not lose value?
Far more money was "lost" than was recoverable as "stolen", but this is common in any crime--you may find the guy that got $35 for the CD player he stole from your car, but you can't extract the $850 to repair the damage he did in stealing it because he doesn't have it. Likewise with Enron, etc., tons more money was lost covering the crimes than was "stolen" and recoverable from the crooks.
Who should bear the risk of this? If not the owners (stockholders), then who? I sure don't want government to be the insurer of your stocks any more than I want them to insure your dashboard.
calvoiper
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| | viperlmw
Premium
join:2005-01-25
 ·Qwest.net
| 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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| | | emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX
| Re: Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC 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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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI | SOX sux.  | |
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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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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
| 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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roamer1
sticking it out at you
join:2001-03-24
Atlanta, GA
clubs:
| Re: Chop Block! said by inteller :And ATT doesnt need to be saddled with a CDMA company. Their GSM footprint comes close to being as large as Alltels. Actually, it isn't, especially in the West, where Alltel operates GSM coverage for the sole benefit of other carriers, specifically AT&T and T-Mobile!
-SC
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
| Re: Chop Block! thats just leftover Western Wireless crud that they have been trying to unload. This may be one of the first pieces to go under new ownership. The investors want to make this a clean CDMA play that can either be swallowed by verizon, or divided up between sprint and verizon....maybe qwest. | |
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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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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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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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| phlydude
join:2006-08-28
Newark, DE | Re: Summary Can't get Alltel in Philadelphia suburbs...didn't know this company existed in a "nationwide" roll until last year when the "Chad" commercials aired. Thought it was a midwest only company. | |
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Piggie
I Actually use Windstream
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Orange Springs, FL
 ·HughesNet Satellit..
·Windstream
| Re: Summary They never did the advertising they needed to do, to put a lot of customers in those areas, though granted many or most are rural. For example. I lived in an Alltel area but my wife bought us Cingular. It has so so coverage in my rural area. Then when the contract was up I looked around and discovered Alltel had much better coverage in my area. Lack of advertising.
It wasn't until they challenged the other's with their My Circle plan, that they put the money into TV and other advertising.
It's a sad day for America. We are rapidly moving toward one oil company, one telephone company, one cable/satellite TV company.
All this will fuel Wall Street in the interim, but will collapse under it's own weight if the government doesn't step back into anti-trust regulation that makes sense.
Believe me when I say I hope I am very dead wrong!
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| Speedstream 4200 Modem - 3m/386 plan | W98-W2KSP4-XPSP2 - All AMD | Buffalo WHR G54S with OpenWRT WR0.9 | 2 downstream switches feeding 5 total clients (no wireless)| | |
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Joseph327
join:2006-02-03
Jacksonville, FL | AMF to the worst POS telco on the planet. | |
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Alltel Bought For $24.8 Billion
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Yet one more company going private; out of reach of SEC
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