With Americans hungry for wireless services, one owner of broadcast towers is making a play to expand its reach.
The American Tower Corporation said on Friday that it had agreed to acquire the parent company of Global Tower Partners for $3.3 billion in cash. The deal, which gives it thousands of towers and other communications infrastructure in the United States, includes the assumption of $1.5 billion of debt, the announcement said. The total value of the deal is about $4.8 billion.
By expanding its holdings, American Tower is hoping to take advantage of the plans by the big wireless carriers to upgrade their networks to feed the consumer demand for cellphones and broadband services. In an example of this strategy, Verizon Communications reached a deal this week to take full control of its wireless unit in a $130 billion deal.
“With all four major domestic wireless carriers engaged in aggressive multiyear 4G LTE deployments, we believe our acquisition of G.T.P. solidifies our path to achieving our strategic goals,†James D. Taiclet Jr., the chief executive, chairman and president of American Tower, said in a statement.
Investors in American Tower cheered Friday’s announcement, sending the company’s shares up about 4.5 percent at the start of trading to around $71.80 a share.
Friday’s deal continues American Tower’s strategy of acquisition. Last month, the company agreed to buy 2,790 towers in Brazil and 1,666 towers in Mexico from NII Holdings for $811 million.
Under the terms of the latest deal, American Tower is buying MIP Tower Holdings, a privately held real estate investment trust that owns Global Tower Partners and other companies. Among Global Tower’s holdings are about 5,400 towers in the United States and management rights to more than 9,000 other sites.
The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, is projected to contribute about $345 million in revenue and $270 million in gross profit, American Tower said on Friday.
Goldman Sachs and EA Markets Securities provided financial advice to American Tower, and Clifford Chance and Sullivan & Worcester were its legal advisers. Global Tower Partners was advised by Deutsche Bank Securities.
