There was a time when deals were hailed as "win-win" events for all sides. In the current market, "don't lose too much" may be the new rallying cry.

Fueling a sale of wireless provider Alltel to Verizon Wireless is the desire of the banks that financed last year's buyout of Alltel to get that debt off their books.

Verizon Wireless has announced that it will acquire Alltel for $28 billion, including $22 billion in debt. 

The market for deal debt froze up when the credit crisis took hold last August. In recent months, there have been some signs of life as private equity giants have begun buying these leveraged loans—essentially buying back their own debt. Such buying gained traction after a $12.5 billion loan sale by Citigroup.

Felix Salmon has noted that there may be questionable tax issues with private equity firms buying the debt of their own deals, but the momentum has not stopped.

Banks are willing to take a haircut on these loans to improve their balance sheets, and private equity firms smell a profitable opportunity in the long run.

Alltel was bought out by Texas Pacific Group and the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs. The lending banks, which include Citigroup, Barclays, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, have not been able to sell some $23 billion in loans, which are recorded on their books as a loss.

So, report Andrew Ross Sorkin and Laura Holson of the New York Times, Verizon will pay T.P.G. and Goldman a small premium, while "some debt holders will sell at a discount, albeit at a higher price than the debt would fetch on the market."

A sale could prompt banks to push for similar deals. Citigroup, for example, would love to sell the $5 billion in loans it made to finance the buyout of EMI last year. But unlike Alltel, EMI has no obvious strategic buyer.

Lauren Silva at Breakingviews.com says that a discounted debt sale by the banks is better than the alternative.

In the case of Alltel, "when the underwriters gauged market interest for a bond deal a few weeks ago, investors were willing to pay only 89 cents on the dollar."

"So a 4 percent haircut isn't a sacrifice at all. In fact, some lenders may even be able to book a profit. Some of the loans may have been syndicated to distressed debt investors at discounted prices."

Earlier today, Vodafone, which has a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless—and which had reportedly opposed previous attempts to buy Alltel because of concerns that its stake would be diluted as a result—confirmed that Verizon is in "advanced talks."  

An acquisition would allow Verizon Wireless to leap over AT&T as the biggest wireless provider, with 80 million subscribers.