Verizon Agrees to Buy Fleetmatics in $2.4 Billion Cash Deal

(Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to buy GPS vehicle-tracking company Fleetmatics Group Plc in an all-cash deal valued at $2.4 billion, vaulting the telephone giant deeper into the automotive-technology market.

Verizon will pay $60 a share for the Dublin, Ireland-based company, a 40% premium to Fleetmatics’ closing price last week, according to a statement Monday. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

With its wireless business slowing, Verizon has been pursuing new sources of growth, such as connected-device subscriptions, video streaming, advertising and mobile-workforce management. In June, Verizon Telematics acquired Telogis Inc., a cloud-based mobile enterprise management software company based in Aliso Viejo, California. That transaction closed last week.

Verizon ended June with net debt of $96.9 billion, or 2.2 times adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. After announcing its deal to buy Yahoo! Inc.’s web assets for $4.83 billion last week, the company said it that by 2019, its credit rating profile will be back to where it was before its 2014 agreement to buy out partner Vodafone Group Plc’s stake in Verizon Wireless. Before that transaction, Verizon’s net debt was typically around 1.5 times earnings.

Shares of Verizon gained 0.2% to $55.52 at 9:42 a.m. in New York and had climbed 20% this year through Friday. Fleetmatics soared 39% to $59.75.

PJT Partners and Wells Fargo Securities LLC are Verizon’s financial advisers on the deal and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, A&L Goodbody and Macfarlanes LLP are providing legal counsel. Morgan Stanley is serving as financial adviser to Fleetmatics, with Goodwin Procter LLP and Maples and Calder giving legal counsel.

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Cloud computing Telematics Mobile technology
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