The nation's largest cellular telephone provider was born today after Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) agreed to purchase Alltel for approximately $28.1 billion. The deal will help Verizon's wireless business surpass that of AT&T Wireless to take a strong lead.

The deal also represents one of the quickest flips in history as Alltel's private equity owners just completed buying the company last fall for about $27.5 billion. The result was a fast $600 million profit in just about a year. The consortium had reportedly been sitting on huge debt-related losses and were pushing hard to sell.

Under the terms of the deal, Verizon will acquire the equity of Alltel for $5.9 billion and assume $22.2 billion in debt. The transaction is slated to be completed by the end of the year. The move caught investors by surprise given the fact that it was rejected in the past due to Vodafone's resistance - a parter with Verizon Wireless.

The move also positions Verizon increasingly as a wireless business as opposed to a wireline business and is a logical fit. Both companies share the same cellular technology, CDMA, and Alltel services areas that are not serviced by Verizon. This positive spin helped push shares of Verizon up some five percent on the day.

In the end, this move underscores that the wireless industry is no place for independent telecom providers. It is the giants that thrive in this arena and even private equity funds are starting to realize that they cannot compete. It will be interesting to see how this affects others in the sector.

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Yahoo Inc. (NDAQ: YHOO) has suddenly turned into one of the most active dealmakers in its bid to reduce the pressure from shareholders. A whirlwind of new deals were announced today with advertising partners ranging from Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) to CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS). Meanwhile, the company is desperately trying to strike a deal with Microsoft in leiu of an outright acquisition.

Shareholders like Carl Icahn are still not satisfied and are demanding a sale of the company. Many are not impressed that it took Yahoo this long to "rewrite" the company and turn it around. After all, if management was so confident in the company then why has the stock been stagnant for so long? To many investors, it comes down to a vote of confidence. Management still faces a lot of opposition that could prove difficult to qwell without a sale.

According to many shareholders, Yahoo must overcome a large (and growing) gap with Google in the search market in order to win back investors. And that might take a little longer than most shareholders are willing to wait...

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Yahoo Inc. (NDAQ: YHOO) leaders continue to contradict themselves as shareholders become increasingly fed up. Court documents revealed today that Yahoo had rebuffed a partnership with Google Inc. (NDAQ: GOOG) just one day before Microsoft Corporation's (NDAQ: MSFT) bid on anti-trust concerns.

"We are focused on long-term value creation rather than short-term gains," read a statement prepared for Yahoo executives. "Short-term analysis of the revenue for potential of outsourcing monetization may not take into account the longer term impact on the competitive market if search becomes an effective monopoly."

These comments come in sharp contrast to Yahoo's later position, during Microsoft talks, that it was conducting a test with rival Google to sell its search ads. The 180 was part of a strategy by Yahoo to seek alternatives for its business rather than selling out at Microsoft's $31 per share offer.

Now, shareholders are increasingly wondering whether or not Yahoo executives were honestly ever considering the Microsoft offer, or whether they simply will not sell out at any price. The news also comes just after several lawsuits aimed at pushing the transaction through by law or overtaking the board.

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