|
|
| |
| Fri, Nov. 21, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Alltel employees get memo about merger Thursday, Jun 5, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Alltel Corp. told employees in an e-mail today that the Verizon merger won't affect their jobs - at least not for now. "There will be no immediate impact on your job," the email says. "You will have the same job tomorrow that you had yesterday, reporting to the same individual, working for the same pay and eligible for the same bonuses or commissions." The email notes that a series of meetings with management teams are being held today and that managers will share more information with employees soon. "It is not a time for panic, it is a time to seek accurate information and make informed decisions," the email continued. "We are committed to getting you the timely information you need to plan." When Alltel announced its sale to TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners in May 2007, CEO Scott Ford said the acquisition by private-equity firms was the best outcome in the company's auction for shareholders and employees alike. "If you're a shareholder employee, you get paid and you get to keep your job," Ford said, noting there were no forced reduction plans in the wake of the go-private transaction. "I know it sounds trite, but I don't think you're going to see much change," Ford said. "I'm saying it not to allay your fears. If Verizon or AT&T would have been there and paid more, we'd have sold it to them." Now that Alltel has been sold to New Jersey-based Verizon, the nation's second-largest wireless company, some employees are concerned the overlap between the two telecoms will eliminate their jobs. Neither company has yet discussed ramifications for Alltel's corporate headquarters along the Arkansas River, where about 3,000 people are employed. Verizon said in a prepared statement that it expects to "realize synergies with a net present value, after integration costs, of more than $9 billion driven by reduced capital and operating expense savings. Synergies are expected to generate incremental cost savings of $1 billion in the second year after closing." Industry analysts and experts say you don't have to read very far into the statement to see the end of Alltel's corporate presence in Little Rock and many jobs associated with it. "If you're going to save $1 billion, you're going to have to do some cost-cutting, which means unfortunately a number of people in Arkansas are going to have to be moved out of Arkansas or basically let go," said Fariborz Ghadar, director of the Center for Global Business Studies at Penn State University. Ghadar, whose background is in mergers and acquisitions, has served as a consultant for AT&T. The sprawling Alltel campus is one of the largest corporate presences in Little Rock, according to Stuart Mackey, a certified commercial investment member with Coldwell Banker Commercial Hathaway Group. "If Alltel left it would soften the market just due to the volume of space," Mackey said. The highly desirable Riverdale area would quickly shift from a landlord's market to a tenant's market, he said. Acxiom Corp. recently vacated offices in the area. How long the space would sit empty were Verizon to vacate Alltel's campus depends on how the property would be sold, Mackey said. If the campus is sold in one piece, it would take a unique user, he said. "I know that there are some larger corporate groups looking around," he said. "Some would be relocation, some would be new space, and certainly that (the Alltel campus) would be near the top of their list if they could get an appropriate size." |
