Weekly Deal Roundup

Tarpon Towers completes tower acquisitions – Now owns 75 towers
From: Tarpon Towers
BRADENTON, FL- December 1, 2009 – Tarpon Towers, an acquirer and developer of wireless communications sites, today announced it had completed a 37 tower acquisition and now owns over 75 towers. With the company’s current backlog of tower builds and committed acquisitions, the company expects to own approximately 100 towers by year end. To support the company’s growth, Tarpon received additional capital from ABS Capital Partners, a leading later-stage growth company investor, and an additional debt commitment from its bank. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Tarpon’s communications tower portfolio currently includes towers in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, New York and California with additional sites in development and under letter or purchase agreement throughout the eastern and northeastern US. Tarpon plans to continue to work with local tower owners and developers as it expands.
Soros backs $350m pan-African tower business
From: telecomasia.net
A George Soros fund has backed a $350 million plan to build mobile network towers across Africa.
Soros Strategic Partners, lead investor Helios Strategic Partners and others have signed a letter of intent to form Helios Towers Africa (HTA).
HTA will build and maintain telecom towers, leasing space on the towers to wireless operators across Africa, Helios said.
HTA’s business model will be based on the already-operational Helios Towers Nigeria (HTN), Africa’s first independent telecom tower operator. HTN will soon have 2,000 tower sites Nigeria-wide.
Co-investors include RIT Capital Partners and Albright Capital Management, it said.
Africa’s mobile penetration is just 45%, leaving the continent’s markets with much room for growth, Helios said.
See the story here.
France Telecom and TDC agree to merge Orange Switzerland and Sunrise
From: PR-USA.net
France Telecom and TDC announce today that they have reached an agreement to combine their respective Swiss subsidiaries, Orange Communication S.A. (“Orange Switzerland”) and Sunrise Communications S.A. (“Sunrise”). The combined entity will create the leading nationwide alternative provider of telecommunications services in Switzerland.
France Telecom will pay at closing a net amount of €1.5 billion to TDC and, as a result of a series of steps, become a 75% shareholder in the combined entity, and TDC will hold the remaining 25%.
With approximately 3.4 million mobile(1) and 1.1 million fixed and broadband customers(2), the combined entity will account for around 38% of the mobile telephony market(3) and 13% of the fixed broadband connections(4). For 2008, the combined entity would have generated total pro-forma revenues of CHF 3.1 billion (€2.0 billion) and EBITDA of CHF 809 million (€534 million). As a full-service nationwide fixed and mobile operator, it will broaden the scope of services offered through more than 100 shops throughout Switzerland, bringing the best of both companies’ offers to a larger number of customers.
Read the entire press release here.
GlenMartin files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
From: Boonville Daily News
GlenMartin, Inc., a company specializing in the design, manufacturing, and installation of vertical support structures and infrastructure used in telecommunications, electrical power transmission, and wind power, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Employees were informed of the reorganization filing on Nov. 12, when the filing was made, project manager Beau Aero said on November 23.
Aero said that while company has reduced staff in the past six months, the bankruptcy will not affect employees’ jobs.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision,” Aero stated in a news release. “We have been focusing on realigning and improving our operations, and this filing will relieve the immediate pressure from our creditors and provide us time for an orderly exploration of our strategic alternatives.”
The release states that large swings in commodity prices and a number of customer defaults prompted the filing.
Read the entire story here.
picoChip attracts $20 Million investment to accelerate growth
From: picoChip
picoChip announced that it has completed a $20 million funding round. picoChip is a supplier for femtocell silicon, supporting major HSPA carrier deployments, this additional investment will help picoChip extend its leadership and grasp the growing market opportunity in the femtocell sector.
picoChip’s investors include financial investors, Atlas Venture, Highland Capital Partners, Pond Venture Partners, Scottish Equity Partners, and Rothschild plus strategic investors AT&T, Intel and Samsung.
Read the entire press release here.