By Sinead Carew and Paritosh Bansal
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless is close to sealing a roughly $27 billion deal to buy rural mobile service provider Alltel Corp, aiming to overtake AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile , Research) as the top U.S. wireless service, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday.
Verizon's move, in which it would take on about $23 billion of Alltel debt, was a surprise to many analysts as it came only seven months after Alltel was taken private by TPG Capital (TPG.UL: Quote, Profile , Research) and Goldman Sachs' (GS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) GS Capital Partners. The leveraged buyout saddled Alltel with the debt.
That $27.5 billion deal in November 2007 was the largest ever private equity investment in the U.S. wireless industry, but it closed amid a mounting credit crisis that has curtailed the leveraged buyout boom.
Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King said the tightness of capital markets is probably a reason why TPG and Goldman appeared open to such a quick turnaround of Alltel. "If they can break even in a far worse capital market, it certainly makes some sense for them to want to get out," he said.
TPG, Goldman, Alltel and Verizon all declined comment.
While talks were still ongoing and details yet to be worked out, an announcement could come as soon as Thursday, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity before a deal.
A second person briefed on the talks confirmed that Verizon and Alltel were in talks but did not have specific details.
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