Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to buy rival telecommunications operator Frontier Communications Parent Inc. for about $9.6 billion as the New York phone giant looks to expand its high-speed internet business. Frontier’s investors will get $38.50 a share, a 37% premium to the $28.04 closing price on Tuesday, the day before news of a pending deal came out, Verizon said in a statement on Thursday. The transaction values the Dallas-based company at $20 billion including debt.
Verizon Chief Executive Hans Vestberg said the takeover will allow the company to “become more competitive in more markets” in the US. The move by Verizon “would mark a much deeper commitment to a fiber broadband strategy and future-proof its high-speed internet footprint with the best long-term medium for delivering the service,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Butler wrote Wednesday after news reports of a pending acquisition.