Almost 99 percent of PAETEC's (Nasdaq: PAET) shareholders voted "yes" to approve Windstream's (Nasdaq: WIN) acquisition of the CLEC at a special shareholder meeting held in Manhattan, the company announced.
Under the terms of the previously announced agreement, Windstream is offering 0.46 shares of its stock for each share of PAETEC's stock. To buy PAETEC, Windstream has issued 891 million shares of stock and will assume $1.4 billion of PAETEC debt.
There was a fear that PAETEC's shareholders would block the deal because they thought they were being shortchanged. Last week, Windstream settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount with the shareholders.
Of course, one of the stark realities of deals of this size is that there will be job cuts.
Anticipation of layoffs, which PAETEC's current CEO Arunas Chesonis revealed could happen, is beginning boil over as nearby ILEC Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) said in a Democrat and Chronicle article that it's starting to see a steady stream of resumes come in from current PAETEC employees.
For more:
- Democrat and Chronicle has this article
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