Cell Geek

The Department of Justice had approved the merger between Alltel and Verizon. Conditions for the merger included the divestiture of 100 markets across 22 states.

“The divestitures required are necessary to protect wireless customers and are among the most extensive required by the department in a wireless case,” said Thomas Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division.

The divested area includes the entire states of North and South Dakota. Additional cellular market areas will include parts of Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming, and sections of Alabama, Arizona, California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

The FCC is widely expected to also approve the merger with similar divestiture requirements. CellGeek will be live blogging this commission meeting on November 4th at 11 am. Please join us by going here.

[RCR Wireless]

[Current News]

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FCC:Alltel Verizon Meeting Date Set

Verizon Voluntarily Offers To Divest 15 Additional Markets

Verizon Retains Morgan Stanley for Divestiture

Verizon Agrees to Divest to Acquire Alltel

Alltel and Verizon Divestiture Map, and Future Coverage

Verizon Wireless has comited to voluntarily divesting in 15 additional markets. The markets were layed out in a letter filed with the FCC dated October 7th.
These additional markets include: Dothan, Butler, and Gila Alabama, Albandy and Spalding Gorgia, Souix City and Monona Iowa, Lake of the Woods Minnesota, Hickory and Yancey North Carolina, Boon Nebraska, Lincoln, Las Cruces New Mexico, Anderson South Carolina, and Beaver Utah. These markets are in addition to the markets previously commited to in their original application.
Verizon Wireless also made mention that where competitive issues may arrise in descreet markets, they will deal with those markets further along with the commission. The approval of the merger now will require Verizon to divest at least 100 total markets not withstanding any markets ordered in addition to by the FCC or the Department of Justice.

Related Articles:
FCC: Alltel and Verizon's Final Hurdle Cleared
Alltel Verizon Divestiture map, and Future Coverage
Verizon Agrees to Divest to Purchase Alltel
Verizon Retains Morgan Stanley for Divestiture
Verizon/Alltel Aquisition Moving Ahead According to Verizon
[Other Alltel Articles]
[Other Verizon Articles]

Part of the conditions to move forward with the Merger with Alltel Wireless state Verizon must divest 85 overlapping markets in the United States. Verizon has reportedly retained Morgan Stanely for teh divestment. Morgan Stanley has valued the assets to be divested between $3 Billion and $4 Billion. Potential purchasers were required to submit a proposal to Morgan Stanley by August 22nd. There has been interest in the purchase, but no one has offered a price to Verizon for their assets as of yet.