BOSTON-American Tower Corp. completed its merger with SpectraSite Inc., creating a combined company with more than 21,500 wireless towers, more than 400 broadcast towers and nearly 100 in-building sites.
Stockholders of both companies approved the merger in separate meetings Aug. 3. The merger deal gives SpectraSite stockholders 3.575 shares of American Tower stock for each share of SpectraSite stock. At the closing of the merger, American Tower stockholders owned about 58 percent and SpectraSite stockholders owned approximately 42 percent of the combined company.
In addition, American Tower announced that it had amended and restated its certificate of incorporation in connection with the merger, providing for an increase in the number of shares of American Tower stock that can be issued from 500 million to 1 billion.
American Tower also increased the size of its board of directors from six members to 10, adding four SpectraSite directors, who will serve until the next annual meeting of American Tower stockholders.
“The closing of the American Tower-SpectraSite merger marks the creation of the premier provider of wireless and broadcast sites in North America,” said Jim Taiclet, chairman and chief executive of American Tower. “The combined company is uniquely positioned to provide the most extensive portfolio of wireless towers to our customers across the United States. Our industry-leading scale will not only enable us to provide our customers with more choices for their infrastructure needs, but also position us to further enhance our commitment to customer service and process improvement.”
SpectraSite, formerly based in North Carolina, owned about 10,000 revenue-producing wireless tower sites and provided service for Cingular Wireless L.L.C., Nextel Communications Inc., Sprint Corp., T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless.
