AT&T Rival Increases Offer for Straight Path
Straight Path said Monday a rival bidder to AT&T's offer to buy the company and its high-frequency spectrum raised its bid (see 1705030056) from $2.3 billion to $3.1 billion, or $184 per share. Industry officials believe Verizon is the bidder…
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but neither Verizon nor Straight Path have confirmed. Straight Path reported the revised bid in a news release. AT&T earlier agreed to buy Straight Path for $1.6 billion (see 1704260041). “In the span of just a few weeks, the value of millimeter wave spectrum has risen from about $0.009 per MHz-POP, to $0.017 per MHz-POP,” Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson wrote Monday. The situation is complicated and Straight Path owns key blocks in the 39 GHz band the FCC plans to auction for 5G, Moffett wrote. “He who owns Straight Path has all the leverage in working with the FCC to repackage the spectrum for an upcoming auction,” he said. "And it goes without saying that should the auction be materially delayed, he who owns Straight Path will hold essentially all the usable 39 GHz licenses on the market.” Moffett also noted the FCC still has leverage: “The FCC will have to approve a license transfer, as they would in any spectrum transaction, and it is quite possible that they would only do so on the condition that the buyer agree to a repacking to make the rest of the 39 GHz band usable.” Straight Path shares closed up 33 percent Monday at $214.74.