The American mobile operator Verizon Communications has agreed to buy the fiber network company Frontier for 38.50 dollars per share, a total of 20 billion dollars (equivalent to 205 billion kronor), according to a joint press release from the two companies.
The bid represents a premium of 37 percent compared to the closing price of the Frontier share on Tuesday, the day before the news broke that the deal was in the works.
The purchase includes a debt portfolio of 11 billion dollars that the Dallas-based Frontier is sitting on.
The deal will strengthen Verizon's fiber network business and the company's position against its arch-rival AT&T in the market for broadband services.
Frontier – which in 2015 bought a business with fixed telephone lines from Verizon in California, Florida, and Texas – has around three million customers in 25 American states.
The company had sales of 5.8 billion dollars last year, with more than half coming from fiber-optic services.
