AT&T has completed its acquisition of minority stakes in Cincinnati SMSA Limited Partnership and Cincinnati SMSA Tower Holdings from Convergys, a business services outsourcing provider best known for its call centers. AT&T had announced the deal in early June. The company paid $320 million in cash.
Convergys controlled a 34 percent limited partnership interest in Cincinnati SMSA, and a 45 percent limited partnership interest in Cincinnati SMSA Tower Holdings. It acquired these when it was spun off from Cincinatti Bell in 1998.
Convergys was a passive partner. AT&T, acting as the general partner, has been managing the partnerships’ business on a day-to-day basis.
The deal is believed to be partly a grab for spectrum that it claims is scarce. Critics of its planned buyout of T-Mobile, including Sprint, have said it was already sitting on spectrum it could use and even suggested a solution that wouldn’t require a corporate takeover and anti-competitive risks.
