Leap Wireless and Pocket Communications to Form Joint Venture in SouthTexas

Leap Wireless (Cricket) and Pocket Communications have announced they have entered into an agreement to form a Leap-controlled and managed joint venture that will provide enhanced mobile communications through Leap's Cricket brand to customers in the South Texas region, from San Antonio to Laredo and in the Rio Grande Valley covering more than 4.4 million covered potential (POPs).

Leap, which offers unlimited, pre-paid mobile voice, text and Web, as well as mobile broadband service through Cricket, had approximately 5 million customers across the nation at the end of 2009, including approximately 400,000 in the South Texas region. Pocket Communications, which offers similar unlimited pre-paid services, had approximately 320,000 customers in the South Texas region at the end of 2009.

"Today's agreement will provide Pocket's South Texas customers with expanded wireless service in Leap's Cricket coverage throughout the US and access to an increased range of features and services, including Cricket Broadband and Cricket PAYGo," said Doug Hutcheson, Leap's president and chief executive officer. "By combining two strong providers we will continue our commitment to offering South Texas customers great unlimited value and better, more comprehensive coverage. The joint venture is structured to ensure that both Pocket and Leap will benefit from its success. We look forward to working together with the wider Pocket family of companies and management team as we continue to build a great value proposition for our customers and a successful business for our employees and stakeholders. This transaction, which will deliver significant value to our shareholders, is consistent with our strategy of improving our ability to compete by increasing our overall strength and scale, while expanding our offer to customers."

"We are pleased to have come to a mutually beneficial agreement with Cricket; the benefits of this transaction are obvious and clearly create a combined value that is significantly more than the individual parts," said Paul Posner, Pocket's chief executive officer. "As a combined entity, South Texas should continue to be one of Cricket's best performing regional clusters and we at Pocket are excited to be bringing even more robust offerings to our retail channel partners. These enhanced offerings will allow the combined operations to compete even more effectively against other flat-rate wireless operators in the area. Over the past four years we have seen Cricket improve its operational capability and execution; we value their strategic vision and believe that their spectrum position, coupled with their ability to deliver more advanced service offerings, provide an opportunity to create even more value than continuing to compete on a stand-alone basis."

At the closing, the joint venture will acquire substantially all of Pocket Communications' and Cricket's wireless licenses and operating assets for the South Texas region. Leap will own approximately 76 percent of the joint venture and Pocket Communications will own approximately 24 percent. As one step in the transaction, immediately prior to the closing, Leap will purchase some of Pocket Communications' South Texas assets for approximately $38 million in cash, which Leap will then contribute to the joint venture together with its own South Texas assets. Pocket will contribute the remainder of its South Texas assets to the joint venture directly. The companies have certain put and call rights on Pocket's interest in the joint venture which generally commence after 3-1/2 years. In addition, Pocket will be obligated to sell its interest in the joint venture to Cricket in the event of a Leap change of control.

The joint venture is expected to generate significant cost synergies, beginning about twelve months after closing, as a result of efficiencies from improved purchasing, customer care, and broad operational improvements, as well as the elimination of overlapping cost such as coverage redundancies, overlapping distribution, and some customer awareness activities. These joint venture cost synergies, together with the OIBDA contribution from the business Pocket contributes to the joint venture, are expected to result in additional contribution to Leap's OIBDA in the range of $50-60 million annually within two years after closing. The joint venture is also expected to generate some additional revenue synergies, not included in the above estimates, primarily as a result of the joint venture being a stronger competitor in South Texas region, and reduced churn from customers' access to a more attractive wireless service footprint.

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions, including approval by the Federal Communications Commission. The parties expect the transaction to be completed later this year.

Following the closing, Pocket Communications will continue to provide services under the Pocket brand in New England.