Williams (WMB) announced that it has agreed to acquire the 50% general partner interest and 55.1M limited partner units in Oklahoma City-based Access Midstream Partners (ACMP) held by Global Infrastructure Partners II ,GIP, for $5.995B in cash. At the close of trading on Friday, June 13, the 55.1M units had a market value of $3.6B. Upon closing, Williams will own 100% of the general partner and 50% of the limited partner interests in Access Midstream Partners. This transaction follows Williams’ acquisition of its 50% GP interest and 23% LP interest in Access Midstream Partners in December 2012. Williams expects the acquisition to close in Q314. Following the closing of the acquisition, Williams plans to increase its third-quarter 2014 dividend by 32% to 56c per share. Williams also announced a proposal to merge Williams Partners (WPZ) with and into Access Midstream Partners. “Today, we’re announcing a series of steps designed to amplify the benefits of our existing relationship with Access Midstream Partners, an increase in our dividend and the acceleration of Williams’ move to a pure-play GP holding company of two leading master limited partnerships,” said Alan Armstrong, Williams’ CEO. “The proposed merger of Williams Partners and Access Midstream Partners, if consummated, would create an industry-leading, large-scale MLP with substantial positions across the midstream business – spanning natural gas gathering and processing, natural gas transmission pipelines, and NGL and petchem services. Our positions in these businesses provide clearly identified growth for the foreseeable future,” Armstrong said.