Verizon To Acquire Alltel?

According to the latest news, Verizon is “deep in talked to acquire Alltel”, who is America’s fifth largest wireless carier. Alltell was recently taken private by TPG and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners in a $27.5 billion deal.

As usual with these kinds of reports, both parties refused to comment on the issue (which normally means that something’s cooking). If this does indeed go down, analysts are expecting Verizon to pay around 8x Alltel’s current EBITDA, whereas TPG / Goldman Sachs paid 9.2x