Verizon wants to buy Alltel, create incestuous major carrier
48 comments
Filed in Alltel, Networks, Verizon
What would you do with $27 billion? If your name is Verizon Wireless, it seems the answer is acquire rival Alltel. According to CNBC Verizon is “deep in talks” to acquire Alltel. The price currently being batted around is $27 billion, which is about equal to the GDP of Latvia. Alltel was recently purchased for $27.5 billion by private investment firms TPG and Goldman Sachs, and two sales in under 12 months is not a great sign. That said, given the current economic downward spiral it’s not the worst bidding price Alltel could have commanded. While there’s no word on exactly when this transaction might be finalized, we all know what “deep in talks” means, right?
Tags: Alltel, cnbc, verizon wireless
Maybe i wouldn’t hate this idea so much if didn’t involve Verizon.
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And I was hoping U.S. Cell and Alltel would merge. This won’t be good for any other CDMA carriers
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wath they buy out sprint after this
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Wow, what has taken Verizon so long? I live in rural Nebraska and have been “stuck” with Alltel as my only cellular option. Having said that, I have had good service here and around the country (customer service is another matter). The Verizon rumors have been hanging around here for over a year. I don’t care if Verizon buys Alltel, just don’t screw things up with crappy service and lousy coverage (as my Verizon friends have sometimes experienced). So Verizon, do it right or leave me alone!
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wow would verizon just quit already i mean they are already trying to buy over rcc wireless aka unicel which is a gsm provider and they just think that they can buy over every company, they are cdma do they not know that? and most people that know much about phones dont want crappy cdma service along with their phones…stay away verizon!!
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Here’s Verizon guy telling Alltel guy how it’s gonna be…
http://www.diangy.com/filemanager/files/Pictures/GART%20-%20Alltel%20Alice.jpg
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Isn’t Goldman now, btw?
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*Btw, Isn’t Goldman public now?
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yeah i think so it’s cary noy you can’t trus altel phones to be bugged via the “quantico circut” to bad they havn’t put sprint out of it’s misery can see that easy
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You’re full of crap and DO NOT know wireless technology. CDMA is far superior to GSM. Its just too bad GSM is used overseas more then CDMA.
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Classic “Doom News”. Good thing I’m already with Verizon then?!
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Hmmm, less choice for consumers. Great news!
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@ argonnj
Agreed. Very unfortunate.
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Uh…. buy everybody? That’s AT&T’s game…..
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yeah let at&t buy everyone….who does verizon think they are…lol
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Verizon may have two options buy Alltel or let someone else do it. If at&t took Alltell it would spell disaster for Verizon
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Looks like “Chad” is going to be losing his job. All that smack talking has caught up with him.
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It would make Absolutely no business sense for AT&T to buy Alltel, different wireless technology.. I think the carriers have learned from sprint’s disastrous marriage with Nextel. It does make sense for a verizon/Alltel marriage as thier networks both use CDMA better integration and they need to compete with ATT
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CDMA superior huh? Guess that’s why even Verizon and Alltel are going with LTE (evolution path of GSM) instead of CDMA and 90% of the world uses GSM. Only in the U.S. is it in the minority and even then not by a huge margin.
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27 Billion to get the how many customers?
Why don’t they pony up that 27 billion and lower their prices just a little! They’d probably make a killing just by having competitive pricing!
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yeah cdm blows only 15% of the worl uses CDMA
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First of all, Galvatron, shut up and go away from the BGR. Grow up and get a life.
Secondly, an arguement over CDMA vs GSM is pointless. In a few years all this arguing wont matter because there will be something better on both sides. LTE, etc…
Imagine the last Alltel commercial….Chad and VZW guy become friends and team up against everyone else….LOL!
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I agree, james. All US carriers, aside from Sprint, are going to LTE so the CDMA vs. GSM is pointless. Both have good points and bad but I don’t feel either is “superior.”
But this buy out shouldn’t happen as it takes choice away from consumers. We’ve seen it happen with cable and land lines and all it causes is more bitching. I personally like T-Mobile but if they ever piss me off, I don’t like the idea of my only other options being “The Death Star” selling my information or “Big Red” reporting my late payments to credit bureaus. In the end, it will just hurt us.
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Seems like most of the tech knowledge by these people has been inbreed and got laid twice at there family reunions, if many have forgotten about the AT&T merger a few years ago, which is a larger takeover than if Verizon were truthfully acquiring Alltel which is mainly on the eastern part of the US, this makes business sense, something most people dont use when it comes to this!
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This has been a rumor for years, however here is the problem with the merge or buy out. 2 years ago when we bought out Cellular one, Alltel was forced to sell off the double coverage areas of the two company’s due to the monopoly laws. If you look at an Alltel map and a Verizon map, there damn near the same thing. The reason Verizon gets better service over Alltel is cause, Verizon is using US Cellular towers and we can’t. I work for Alltel and have for some time and have heard it all. I could see Sprint buying us out first, however no matter what company you have service with you will always have problems. The difference with Alltel and Verizon is,Verizon your just a number. Oh and Alltel is a lot better financially set.
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