December 15, 2004
As reported widely in the press, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Willkie client Sprint Corp. announces agreement to merge with Nextel Communications Inc. in a deal valued at $35 billion.
As reported widely in the press, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Willkie client Sprint Corp. announced December 15 an agreement to merge with Nextel Communications Inc. in a deal valued at $35 billion. Willkie’s Telecommunications Department served as regulatory counsel to Sprint, advising on critical state and federal regulatory issues, including antitrust matters. The deal would create the nation's third largest wireless telephone service provider known as Sprint Nextel. Sprint and Nextel had combined revenue of approximately $40 billion over the past year, servicing more than 35 million wireless subscribers. Based in the firm’s Washington office, the Willkie team working on the deal includes lead partner Philip Verveer, special counsel (as of 1/05) Michael Jones, and associates David Don, Angie Kronenberg, Jennifer Ashworth Dinh, Megan Stull, and Jonathan Lechter. Frankfurt partner Sven-Erik Heun and Brussels partner Marc van der Woude consulted on non-US regulatory matters. The firm's role in the deal is highlighted in the December 16 editions of The Daily Deal and the New York Law Journal. Earlier this month, Willkie’s corporate team advised Sprint on infrastructure build-out contract commitments with each of Lucent, Motorola and Nortel valued at approximately $3 billion.
