Crown Castle buys Verizon stake in joint venture

Crown Castle International Corp. said it purchased Verizon Wireless’ 37.3-percent interest in their Crown Atlantic Joint Venture for $295 million, including $15 million of net working capital. The venture included 2,019 towers and has $180 million outstanding under its senior credit facility. Following the purchase, Crown Castle said it now controls the entire venture, though Verizon will retain certain protective rights regarding the tower network. Crown Castle noted the Crown Atlantic venture generated $114 million in annualized site rental revenue during the third quarter as well as $70.4 million in annualized adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Earlier this week, Crown Castle announced a partnership with Nokia Corp. to bring video services to U.S. users. In October, the companies launched digital video broadcast for handset (DVB-H) trials in Pittsburgh and said they plan to expand the trials to consumer services.