It’s been a long wait, but Judge Harold Greene yesterday gave Southwestern Bell Corp, St Louis, Missouri, the go ahead to buy the cellular telephone and paging operations of Metromedia Inc and various smaller sellers. The company said it expects to close deals within a week, paying a hefty $1,380m, subject to adjustments at closing. It will acquire full or majority ownership in six cellular systems serving Chicago; Gary, Indiana; Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts; Baltimore, and Washington DC, and will also acquire the Washington Post Co’s 20% stake in the Baltimore and Washington systems, along with the 14.5% stake of Metrocall Inc, the 10% stake of Graphic Scanning Corp, and a stake of less than 1% held by a private investor in the two systems. Souuthwestern will also acquire paging services in 29 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, Dallas, San Francisco and Las Vegas. In his order, Judge Greene required the firm to divest itself within six months of Metromedia’s interexchange facilities in California, Chicago and Washington DC. Some 1,200 employees will join Southwestern Bell from the new acquisitions.
