American Tower to Raise $700M for Acquisitions

Boston-based American Tower, an owner and operator of wireless towers and other communications sites, said today it plans to raise $700 million in a registered public offering of senior unsecured notes due September 2020. The company says the net proceeds of the sale, expected to be about $693.8 million, will be used to finance the recent acquisition of Essar Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited, based in India, as well as “other recent and potential acquisitions.” American Tower (NYSE: [[ticker:AMT]]) was formed in 1995, and says it currently owns and operates more than 32,000 wireless communications sites in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and India.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.