enabled Wilbourn and Miller to buy telephone equipment wholesale. Alltel's modern history begins in 1983 when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone merged. Mid-Continent Telephone was originally a theatre company and started in 1931 by Eddie Ruben and Joe L. Floyd in Minnesota. In 1985, Alltel launched its first wireless system in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1993, Alltel opened its first wireless retail store. In 1997, the company's wireless and wireline businesses were combined into a single organization. On December 9, 2005, Alltel announced that it would become a wireless-only company, simultaneously merging and building a spin-off company for its wireline services. The wireline services business of Alltel merged with Valor Telecom and was named Windstream Communications on April 10, 2006. The merger-spinoff process ended July 17, 2006 when Windstream began operations. On May 20, 2007, Alltel announced an agreement to be sold to two private-equity firms: TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners. Under the deal, the two firms paid $71.50 a share in cash, or $27.5 billion, a 10% premium over Alltel's May 18, 2007 closing price. Mergers and acquisitions 1990 Systematics, Inc – founded in 1968 by Arkansas investor Jackson T. Stephens. Became Alltel Information Services (AIS), and later sold to Fidelity National Information Services. 1997 Standard Group, Inc. (Cornelia, Georgia) – merger adds more than 71,000 local telephone lines Aliant Communications (Lincoln, Nebraska) – $1.8 billion merger Liberty Cellular (Kansas) – $600 million merger 1998 360 Communications (Illinois) – wireless properties and assets, merger adds 2.6 million customers in 15 states 2000 SBC Communications (Louisiana) – wireless properties GTE Wireless (assets in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas), following GTE's merger with Bell Atlantic to form Verizon 2002 Verizon (Kentucky) – $1.9 billion for local access lines (Kentucky ALLTEL) CenturyTel – $1.5 billion, 700,000 wireless customers 2003 Cellular XL (Mississippi) – wireless properties U.S. Cellular and TDS Telecom – wireless assets 2005 Cingular Wireless-divested AT&T Wireless properties (Oklahoma) (Connecticut) (Kentucky) (Mississippi) – wireless properties Public Service Cellular, Inc. of Georgia – wireless properties Cellular One brand by Western Wireless (Washington) – wireless properties Alltel/Valor (merger) – Alltel spins off wireline business and merges it with Valor to form Windstream Communications 2006 First Cellular of Southern Illinois (Illinois) – Alltel purchased First Cellular for $14-15 million in cash. Palmetto MobileNet, L.P. (North Carolina) (South Carolina) – Alltel purchased from Palmetto MobileNet, L.P. wireless partnerships that