And Immediately They Pounce…

As landowners and tower owners just start to hear of the AT&T – T-Mobile merger news, the lease buyout firms and optimization firms have started aggressive campaigns to encourage landowners to either sell or renegotiate the terms of their leases IMMEDIATELY.    Despite the fact that the AT&T and T-Mobile merger will take a year to complete and that it may not (but probably will) be consummated at all, landowners are being told that they have to act now.

Md7 is sending out emails to landowners saying that they have 5 days (yes- 5 days) to decide whether to agree to reductions of their leases in exchange for a guaranteed term.   Unison Site Management is aggressively contacting landowners telling them that they need to sell immediately or their lease could be terminated soon.  Of course, this begs the question of why Unison is so anxious to buy leases that may be terminated and why Md7 is so anxious to guarantee leases that might be terminated.

This isn’t to say that some leases won’t be terminated eventually.   We believe that the merger will occur and that AT&T and T-Mobile will terminate leases.   They have to- there is no reason for them to operate 100,000 cell sites, some of which duplicate another cell sites coverage.   But landowners should not feel pressured to make a uninformed “sky is falling” decision.   If you need help making a calm and rational decision, please contact us.