AT&T may be busy laying the groundwork for a potential takeover of European carrier Vodafone, but it's also got an acquisition of Leap Wireless here in the U.S. to tend to. The good news for AT&T is that that deal appears to be going pretty smoothly so far. Leap Wireless recently announced that its shareholders have approved of AT&T's proposed buyout. The vote wasn't terribly close, with 99 percent of the votes cast being in favor of the AT&T deal. Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson issued the following statement concerning the result the stockholder vote:

"We are pleased with the outcome of yesterday's vote and thank all of our stockholders for their support. Stockholder approval is an important milestone on our path to completing the merger with AT&T.  I'd like to thank the dedicated representatives from both companies who are working hard to complete the transaction."

Announced back in July, the deal as it currently stands will see AT&T drop approximately $1.2 billion to acquire Leap Wireless, owner of prepaid operator Cricket Wireless. AT&T has said that if the transaction is completed, it plans to keep the Cricket brand around and expand it to new cities while using Leap's spectrum to supplement its own 4G LTE network. Of course, the acquisition must first get the green light from the likes of the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice. Whether or not that'll happen remains to be seen, but AT&T has said that it expects the deal to close in early 2014.

Via Leap Wireless