Crown Castle International Corp. (NYSE:CCI) has made a $1 billion bid for NextG Networks, Inc. This would form the largest independent provider of distributed antenna systems. Crown Castle would be acquiring NextG from a group of investors that are led by Madison Dearborn Partners. The purchase is expected to be complete by Q2 of 2012. The acquisition will allow Houston-based Crown Castle to provide additional wireless coverage to customers beyond areas that are traditionally served by towers. The distributed antenna systems are a network of smaller cell sites that are connected by fiber to communication hubs. [BusinessWeek]
