Crown Castle Closes $8.5B Transaction Selling Fiber and Small Cell Businesses
Crown Castle announced the close of the transaction to sell its Fiber Solutions business to Zayo Group and its Small Cell business to Arium Networks for $8.5B, or approximately $8.4B net of preliminary adjustments under the stock purchase agreement. Consistent with prior disclosures, Crown Castle expects to use a portion of the sale proceeds to repurchase $1B of shares under its stock repurchase program approved by its board of directors effective May 1 and reduce outstanding debt by more than $7B. "With the completion of the transactions, Crown Castle is now the only U.S. focused, large publicly traded pure-play tower company and is well positioned to become a best-in-class operator in the world's strongest wireless market," said Chris Hillabrant, Crown Castle's president and CEO. "We believe this improved strategic focus enables greater customer alignment, faster decision-making, and more disciplined execution across our high-quality portfolio, accelerating our transformation and supporting long-term shareholder value creation. I want to sincerely thank the teammates who supported our Fiber Solutions and Small Cell businesses for their professionalism and contributions throughout this transition and during their time at Crown Castle."
