SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Motorola said it reached a definitive agreement to sell its four cellular companies in northern Mexico to Telefonica Moviles for $1.79 billion. The agreement was first announced earlier this month.
With the acquisition, Telefonica gains assets in the one large Latin American market where it currently does not have a presence. Although the acquisition does not give Telefonica nationwide coverage or access to the country’s largest market, Mexico City, it adds to the Spanish company’s large Latin American portfolio.
The acquisition includes Motorola’s shares in the four northern wireless carriers under the Protel name. The carriers are Baja Celular, Cedetel, Movitel and Norcel with about 1.4 million subscriber combined. Motorola owns 100 percent of all the carriers except Movitel, of which it owns 90 percent.
In addition, Telefonica has reached an agreement regarding the possible sale of Motorola’s additional wireless carrier interests in southern Mexico, Brazil, Israel, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Lithuania. Acquisitions in Israel, Brazil and Honduras are subject to completion of due diligence by Telefonica, Motorola said. Finalization of transactions in Brazil, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Israel and the south of Mexico are subject to rights of first refusal of other shareholders to purchase Motorola’s shareholdings.
If all the transactions are completed, the total amount paid to Motorola would be $2.645 billion, using proceeds from the coming listing of Telefonica Moviles, Motorola said.
Before the acquisition announcement, Motorola had said it planned to spin off and list Propel, the holding company that includes its international wireless carrier companies.
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