Shenandoah Telecommunications (Shentel) said it will sell its wireless assets to T-Mobile, part of the larger telecom company’s purchase of Sprint last year, for $1.95 billion in cash and will use the proceeds to pay down some debt and issue a special cash dividend to its shareholders. 

Shentel said the deal, expected to close in the second quarter, will bring it about $1.5 billion after taxes. Those proceeds will be used to pay down about $702 million in debt and to issue an $18.75 per share cash dividend to shareholders. Shentel shares closed at $42.23 each on Feb. 2 up 6.5%, or $2.59 each. The stock was priced at $50 per share, up 18.4% or $7.77 each, in pre-market trading Feb. 3. 

T-Mobile purchased Sprint in April for $26 billion and as part of that deal had the right to exercise an option to purchase Shentel’s wireless assets after an appraisal process.  Shentel has been a Sprint affiliate for its wireless service since 1999.  That appraisal was conducted in 2020, ultimately pinning a $2.1 billion value on the operations . After a series of negotiations, the parties agreed on a $1.95 billion price.   

Shentel’s wireless service has about 1.1 million customers and provides service in a six-state area covering all of West Virginia, the Western region of Virginia, Central Pennsylvania, Central Maryland and parts of Ohio and Kentucky. The unit has about 400 employees and generates about $400 million in revenue per year. 

“We are pleased to provide clarity on the expected sale price of Shentel Wireless and our ability to return significant value to our shareholders,” said Shentel CEO Christopher French in a press release. “The expected transaction closing in the second quarter along with the continued rapid expansion of our Glo Fiber to the Home and Beam fixed wireless services are part of our transformation to a broadband centric company. Shentel has a long history of growth and technology innovation and we are very excited about the new opportunities to bring state-of-the-art broadband to our customers and create value for our shareholders.” 

Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) Tuesday praised the FCC's decision to pause the informal shot clock on its review of the Comcast/TWC merger and effectively extend the reply comment period on the proposed deal to Oct. 29.

Cárdenas, who has been critical of the deal, said the move shows the FCC "realizes there are still voices that have legitimate concerns." Those voices include at the FCC's Media Bureau, who said they still needed more info from the parties and to vet a Comcast analysis of program discrimination that refuted the FCC's own analysis in the Comcast/NBCU merger.

Cárdenas said that extending the comment period would insure the public that if the deal is approved, it is "fair to consumers; ensures that smaller, independent voices can thrive; and promotes diversity in the media."

But he also pointed out that the FCC took a similar action in the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, and wound up denying that deal.

“By extending the comment period, the FCC clearly realizes that there are still voices that have legitimate concerns with the merger who still need to be heard,” said Cárdenas. “Part of the challenge we face is that many of those concerned with the merger will potentially have to sit across the negotiating table with a new Comcast-Time Warner Cable.  Because this new entity will have such broad control over media production, distribution, cable and broadband, there is a natural chilling effect for many of those voices

Cárdenas is concerned about the impact of the deal on smaller, independent programmers. He was among 50 House members who sent a letter to the FCC to that effect in August. He also hosted a roundtable with Writers Guild of America West members last week. WGAW is also concerned about the merged company's potential for limiting access to what it sees as a new, online outlet for independents with limited access to traditional distribution outlets controlled by merged media giants.

Cárdenas was also a critic of the Dodgers regional sports network carriage impasse involving Time Warner Cable in California. He called that dispute a subset of larger media consolidation battles, and says when he talked to Wheeler about the Dodgers issue, they also talked about the Comcast/TWC merger.