AT&T to buy Leap Wireless for about $1.2 billion

DALLAS (AP) ? AT&T says it will acquire Leap Wireless, the pre-paid cellphone carrier behind the Cricket brand, for $15 a share in cash, or about $1.19 billion.

Under the deal, AT&T will buy all of Leap's stock and wireless properties, including licenses, network, retail stores and 5 million subscribers.

Leap, of San Diego, had $2.8 billion of net debt.

AT&T says it will keep the Cricket brand name and provide Cricket customers with access to AT&T's "4G LTE" high-speed wireless network.

It also plans to expand Cricket's presence in the U.S.

Leap shares, which closed at $7.98, jumped 94 percent to $15 .52 in after-hours trading Friday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-07-12-ATandT-Leap%20Wireless/id-9b8c1fb632b64dabbe9843565019d72b

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