Verizon CEO confident $20B Frontier deal will get regulatory nod

Verizon (VZ) CEO Hans Vestberg expects that its planned $20 billion purchase of Frontier Communications (NASDAQ:FYBR) will be approved by regulators.

“We are very confident that this will go through, but we also expect that the process will be thorough, and we have dealt with these types of processes before,” Vestberg said in an interview on CNBC on Thursday.

Verizon confirmed on Thursday that it will acquire Frontier (FYBR) for $38.50 a share in cash and the deal is expected to close in 18 months. Shares of Frontier soared 38% on Wednesday on reports of a potential deal, though Frontier is now down 9% in premarket trading as traders likely are considering the antitrust and other risks associated with a deal.

Frontier (FYBR) is basically “not overlapping at all” with the FIOS footprint “as this was sort of a piece of Verizon before,” Vestberg said.

“It’s going to take some time, so it’s heads down and continue to execute on what we’ve done the last couple of quarters with good progress both on wireless and fixed wireless access and fiber,” Vestberg added.