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AT&T to acquire Mexican wireless carrier Iusacell(EFE Ingles Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) New York, Nov 7 (EFE).- AT&T said Friday it has reached an agreement to acquire No. 3 Mexican wireless operator Iusacell from Grupo Salinas for $2.5 billion including debt. The deal will depend on Grupo Salinas, a Mexican conglomerate, completing its announced acquisition of the 50 percent stake it does not already in Iusacell, AT&T said in a statement. "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 Mexico," AT&T said, referring to a recent telecommunications overhaul that imposes a heavy regulatory burden on dominant players. The law targeted "preponderant economic agents" such as Mexican multibillionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil, whose Telcel wireless unit has a stranglehold on Mexico's wireless market. AT&T's deal with Salinas comes just months after the Dallas-based telecommunications giant sold its 8.3 percent stake in America Movil to avoid a conflict of interest related to its acquisition of DirecTV, which competes with Slim's company in Latin America's pay-TV market. On Sept. 10, leading Mexican broadcaster 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 - including the mobile company's licenses, network assets, retail stores and approximately 8.6 million subscribers - can occur, AT&T said. Iusacell offers wireless service covering 70 percent of Mexico's approximately 120 million people, AT&T said. The U.S. telecommunications giant said it plans to further expand Iusacell's network "to cover millions of additional consumers and businesses in Mexico." "Iusacell gives us a unique opportunity to create the first-ever North American Mobile Service area covering over 400 million consumers and businesses in Mexico and the United States," AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson was quoted as saying. AT&T is the United States' leading fixed-line operator and No. 2 wireless carrier after Verizon. EFE ag/mc (c) 2014 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |