Centel Corp, Chicago, has agreement to pay $775m for United Telecommunications Inc’s United Telespectrum cellular telephone operations, which controls operations in 21 cities, has minority stakes in another 17, and also has paging systems in 29 markets but the purchase may be opposed by Centel’s biggest shareholder, the group led by corporate raider Asher Edelman, which controls 5.5% of the shares: Edelman sees the purchase, at a price of $85 per head of population in the regions served, as well over the going rate for cellular operations, and describes the proposed purchase as a scorched earth policy to thwart his investment group.