In the rapidly changing telecommunications industry, our lawyers employ a multi-disciplinary approach to tackling the broad range of issues that face our clients. The Firm’s Business and Finance Department works with prominent telecommunications companies on their mergers and acquisitions, commercial banking and other financing transactions, real estate, and joint ventures, as well as on tax and corporate board advisory matters. In addition, Kleinbard’s Litigation Department routinely works with telecommunications clients on consumer class actions, dealer disputes, internal investigations, and employment, intellectual property and general commercial matters. The Firm has represented numerous companies within this industry, including SunCom Wireless, Global Tower Partners, T-Mobile, Triton Cellular, and Wireless Philadelphia.
Our experience with telecommunications clients includes representing national and international tower owners, wireless carriers, broadband providers, and municipalities in the categories below.
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Lead counsel in over 100 acquisitions/exchanges of wireless markets, both spectrum and broadband
- Served as lead counsel to Global Tower Partners in connection with over 500 tower and rooftop acquisitions from inception to their sale to American Tower in 2013
- Lead counsel in a joint venture between SunCom Wireless and AT&T Wireless
- Corporate Finance
- Senior debt
- Mezzanine debt
- Rounds of preferred stock issuances
- Joint venture agreements
- Executive employment agreements and executive compensation plans for senior management
- Operational agreements
- Roaming agreements
- Sales agent, dealer, and other wholesaler agreements, incentive and promotional programs for agents and wholesalers, and disputes arising therefrom
- Equipment purchase agreements
- Licenses for games, ringtones, and apps
- Consumer equipment insurance programs
- Consumer advertising (direct mail, print, radio, TV, and online)
- Co-marketing and promotional agreements
- Celebrity endorsement agreements
- Website and other Internet marketing/e-commerce issues
- Consumer privacy and data protection issues
- Billing system and other operational software licenses and related consulting agreements
- Real Estate
- Master lease agreements on behalf of tower owners with all major broadband operators
- Retail store/kiosk leases
- Tower site lease agreements on behalf of wireless carriers
Examples of our attorneys’ successes in representing telecommunications clients include:
- Represented the management team of Digital Bridge Holdings LLC (“Digital Bridge”) in connection with the acquisition of Digital Bridge by Colony Capital, Inc. (NYSE: CLNY) (“Colony”), a leading global investment management firm, for $325 million. In connection with the Colony acquisition, represented Marc C. Ganzi, a founder and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Bridge, in connection with his employment agreement to become the CEO of Colony, succeeding Thomas J. Barrack, Jr.
- Represented DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class data center, connectivity and managed services, in connection with Colony Capital’s (NYSE: CLNY) $185 million investment into DataBank through the purchase of secondary equity interests from existing investors Edgewater Funds and Allstate.
- Represented Digital Bridge Advisors, LLC (“Digital Bridge”) in connection with raising $800M to fund the acquisition of Etix Group S.A of Luxembourg, as well as the development of new greenfield hyperscale data center campuses in Frankfurt, Berlin, Milan, Zurich and Warsaw, Poland.
- Representing Digital Bridge in an initial equity fundraising of $200 million for a new affiliate. This equity was used by the affiliate to purchase DataBank, Ltd., a leading North American provider of enterprise-class data center solutions. The acquisition of DataBank provides Digital Bridge with a foothold for growth and further investment in the data center industry. Our team also spearheaded negotiations with existing DataBank management on equity rollover, new equity grant and employment agreements.
- Representing SunCom Wireless from its formation and its joint venture with AT&T Wireless, until the closing of its merger with T-Mobile USA Inc. for $2.4 billion in cash and debt. Representation included an 18-month period serving at headquarters as acting in-house counsel.
- Representing the management of Global Tower Partners (GTP) in connection with the sale of the company to a consortium led by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group. The transaction placed an enterprise value of $1.425 billion dollars on GTP.
- Representing a telecommunications company in the defense of a nationwide consumer class action relating to billing practices.
- Representing Wireless Philadelphia in connection with an agreement with a local investor group to take over operations for Philadelphia’s Wireless Initiative.
- Successfully representing a regional wireless service provider in claims brought against a dealer for breach of a dealer agreement.
