AT&T said on Friday it has reached an agreement to acquire No. 3 Mexican wireless operator Iusacell from Grupo Salinas for $2.5 billion including debt. The sale comes a few months after AT&T sold its stake in America Movil to Carlos Slim Helu for $5.6 billion.
Ricardo Salinas is the head of Grupo Salinas, an empire of retail, banking, TV, and telecom businesses. Iusacell, in which Salinas held a 50% stake, is one of México’s largest wireless providers, with 8.6 million subscribers and a network that covers 70% of the population.
On September 10 Grupo Televisa agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in Iusacell to its partner, Grupo Salinas, for $717 million. That deal must be finalized before AT&T’s acquisition of Iusacell.
In a statement AT&T said, “Our acquisition of Iusacell is a direct result of the reforms put in place by (Mexican) President (Enrique) Peña Nieto to encourage more competition and more investment in México.”
AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said, “Iusacell gives us a unique opportunity to create the first-ever North American Mobile Service area covering over 400 million consumers and businesses in México and the United States.”
(from Forbes)
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