Sprint Nextel will sell towers for $670M

Sprint Nextel Corp. has agreed to sell about 3,300 wireless communications towers for roughly $670 million in cash.

The Overland Park-based wireless carrier (NYSE: S) said in a Wednesday release that it would sell the towers to TowerCo LLC, based in Cary, N.C., as part of a sale-leaseback deal. Sprint is not disclosing the duration of the leases.

After selling the towers, Sprint will be "virtually out of the tower-owning business," company spokesman James Fisher said Wednesday. Sprint will keep a small number of towers for strategic reasons, he said.

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“By leasing, rather than owning these network facilities, we can better focus on our core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers,” Bob Azzi, a Sprint senior vice president, said in the release. “Significantly, this transaction provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity, which gives us greater flexibility in managing our company.”

The towers are concentrated in large metropolitan markets throughout the country and will benefit as wireless communications grows, TowerCo CEO Richard Byrne said in the release.

The deal is expected to close in 90 days. Specific numbers of towers and the final price will be determined then.

Sprint reported at the end of 2007 that it used about 65,000 towers, Fisher said.

Sprint is the No. 3 wireless carrier, with about 53 million subscribers.

TowerCo, founded in 2004, develops, owns and leases communication towers.