Alltel sale to Verizon officially complete
by January 9, 2009 12:07 pm 116 views
The $28.1 billion sale of Little Rock-based Alltel to Verizon Wireless is now a closed deal, with Verizon transferring $5.9 billion to Alltel’s private owners and assuming $22.2 billion in debt.
Verizon issued a press release this morning, but Roby Brock, our content partner at Talkbusiness.net, has details on the deal you won’t find anywhere else.
Brock writes:
Notably, top Alltel executives, like Alltel CEO Scott Ford, COO Jeff Fox, CFO Sharilyn Gasaway, and others will leave today. Talk Business sources say that the job losses that will take place today will be under 100 employees. Most will be senior leadership positions. More cuts will come in time, and as we’ve reported earlier, there will be a re-shuffling of existing employees. Verizon has been hamstrung by regulators to fully assess the Alltel landscape and will be making further assessments on workforce at a later date.
Verizon soon will announce a local leadership team, likely to be headed by Steve Smith. Speculation is he will be named president of the regional headquarters that Verizon plans to make Alltel’s Riverdale campus. Smith spearheaded Verizon’s transition team related to the merger. Expect several existing high-level Alltel employees to stay and report to him, notably in the areas of finance, marketing and human resources.
Link here for more details from Brock, including the leadership team Verizon will leave in Little Rock to sell properties required by the Federal Communications Commission before it approved the Verizon-Alltel deal.