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Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Sprint Nextel to buy wireless affiliate Alamosa for $3.4bn

Sprint Nextel said on Monday it would buy wireless affiliate Alamosa Holdings for about $3.4bn, ending an exclusivity agreement breach that arose from Sprint’s purchase of Nextel Communications, which operates in some of Alamosa’s markets

Alamosa shareholders would receive $18.75 per share in cash, or a roughly 15% premium over Alamosa’s Friday closing price, under the agreement. The deal is worth $4.3bn, including $900m in net debt.

This is the fourth affiliate Sprint agreed to buy in recent months and it has been in talks with about six others as the Nextel deal interferes with its affiliates exclusive rights to the Sprint brand in their operating markets.

Sprint Nextel is also going through a valuation process for a former Nextel affiliate Nextel Partners, which it is being forced to buy. Both the companies have been engaged in bitter legal battles about how such a deal should be valued.

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