Windstream wraps up acquisition of Iowa Telecom

Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) has made it official that Iowa Telecom--its fourth independent ILEC acquisition since last year--is now officially part of its fold.

To finance the $1.2 billion deal, Iowa Telecom shareholders got 0.804 shares of Windstream stock and $7.90 in cash per each Iowa Telecom share. The service provider issued 26.7 million shares of Windstream stock at $284 million, according to its closing stock price on May 28, 2010, and shelled out $260 million in cash. In addition, Windstream paid off Iowa Telecom's outstanding $613 million debt.

Alan Wells, Iowa Telecom's chairman and CEO, will now become a member of Windstream's board of directors.

With much of its traditional landline voice subscribership dwindling and no wireless business to stem the bleeding, Windstream has been on an acquisition hunt over the past year to beef up its size and reach. Along with acquiring Iowa Telecom, Windstream also acquired two other ILECs (D&E Communications and Lexcom) and one CLEC (NuVox).

For more:
- see the release here

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