NEW YORK-Alamosa Holdings Inc. revealed that three lawsuits have been filed against the company in Texas, alleging that Alamosa employees provided confidential information to Sprint Nextel Corp. ahead of last month’s acquisition announcement.
The three suits-filed against Alamosa, its directors and certain senior officers-claim that some of the defendants exchanged confidential information with Sprint Nextel to fund stock options that would immediately vest when Alamosa was sold.
The suits seek to block Sprint Nextel’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Alamosa, announced in August. Interestingly, Alamosa had previously filed a lawsuit alleging that Sprint Corp.’s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc. on Aug. 12 violated exclusivity covenants between Sprint and AirGate PCS Inc., an Alamosa subsidiary.
Alamosa said it learned of the suits on Nov. 29 and 30. The complaints were filed in Lubbock County, Texas, where Alamosa is based, on Nov. 21 and 23. The company did not release the names of all the defendants specified in the complaints, but the cases’ titles are Devesty v. Sharbutt, Slightom v. Sharbutt and Czapfki v. Sharbutt. David Sharbutt is Alamosa’s chairman and chief executive officer.
