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Oct. 11, 2008

On Oct. 9, Verizon Wireless sweetened its acquisition bid in a letter to the FCC, offering to divest fifteen additional U.S. markets in order to further its acquisition of Alltel Wireless.

Verizon's new offer comes amid voiced analyst concerns that the wireless carrier could walk away from the acquisition due to the current global economic credit worries.

Even if Verizon still has enough cash to complete its proposed acquisition, Alltel’s position is tenuous as the overall cost of protecting its own bonds from default has doubled over the past week, due to the global financial crisis.

Verizon has since volunteered to divest some of its overlapping markets in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah.

Verizon originally proposed to divest about eighty-five markets with its original offer to acquire Alltel for $28 billion less than three months ago.

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Source: Verizon Wireless.