From rumor to purchase in under 24 hours… That has to be a new record. The deal is worth $28.1 billion, which includes a massive $22 billion in Alltel debt. The combination will have almost 80 million subscribers which  makes it the largest operator in the world.

The deal is schedule for completion by December 2008 and the press releases make it obvious that Verizon fully intends to merge Alltel into the existing customer pool. Poor Alltel subscribers

Source: Bloomberg