Debevoise & Plimpton, Cravath Swaine & Moore and Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison have landed lead roles on Verizon Communications’ $20bn acquisition of fibre-optic internet provider Frontier Communications.

Debevoise has acted for longtime client Verizon on the deal, intended to help the US wireless carrier grow its high-speed internet business and better compete with rivals AT&T and T-Mobile, while Cravath has represented Frontier. 

Meantime Paul Weiss advised the strategic review committee of the board of directors of Frontier.

Michael Diz, co-chair of Debevoise’s M&A practice, led the deal team alongside M&A partners William Regner and Katherine Durnan Taylor. Diz also co-led Debevoise teams that guided Verizon in its $6.25bn acquisition of Tracfone in 2020 and its $3.1bn buy of Straight Path Communications in 2017, as well as the $10.5bn sale of its local wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier back in 2015. 

The Debevoise team also included M&A partner Jonathan Levitsky alongside finance partner Ryan Rafferty, employee benefits and executive compensation partner Jonathan Lewis, capital markets partner Steven Slutzky, tax partners Erin Cleary and Lena Smith, intellectual property partner Henry Lebowitz and antitrust partners Tim Cornell and Ted Hassi. 

The Cravath team was led by Robert Townsend III, co-chair of the firm’s global M&A practice, along with Matthew Jones and fellow co-chair George Schoen. The firm previously guided Frontier on the sale of its Western US assets to WaveDivision Capital for nearly $1.4 bn in 2019 and earlier acquisitions from Verizon, including the $8.6bn sale of US wireline assets back in 2009. 

The Cravath team advising on the latest Verizon deal also included partners Joseph Zavaglia and Stephen Kessing (both finance), Leonard Teti II (tax), Amanda Hines Gold (executive compensation and benefits) Sasha Rosenthal-Larrea (IP), Noah Joshua Phillips and Jesse Weiss (both antitrust) and Matthew Morreale (environmental).

The Paul Weiss team advising the strategic review committee of Frontier’s board of directors included partner Jeffrey Marell, global co-head of the firm’s M&A practice, and counsel Stan Richards.

Verizon will acquire Frontier for $38.50 per share in cash, representing a premium of just over 37% to the closing stock price on 3 September, the last trading day before reports of a potential acquisition first emerged, Reuters reported. 

Frontier’s roughly $11bn of debt will be refinanced by Verizon as part of the deal, which is expected to close in around 18 months. 

Verizon said it expected the deal to be accretive to its revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth rates upon closing. The transaction will add 2.2 million fibre subscribers across 25 US states to Verizon’s own roughly 7.4 million fibre subscribers across nine states and Washington DC. Verizon's network is largely in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions while Frontier’s coverage is focused on the Midwest, Southwest, California and Texas. 

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said the deal was “a strategic fit”, as it provided an opportunity to be more competitive in more markets across the US.