PLANO, Texas-ProNet Inc. announced it has completed the stock purchase of Metropolitan Houston Paging Services Inc. for $21 million cash.
The Houston paging operation is owned by GTE Southwest Inc., SLT Communications Inc. and Lufkin-Conroe Telecommunications Corp. GTE is reorganizing its paging business to concentrate on a national paging program, ProNet said.
Houston will be the anchor city for ProNet’s new Southwest SuperCenter region. ProNet serves more than 586,000 paging subscribers, compared with 130,000 subscribers at the end of 1993.
Metropolitan Houston serves more than 150,000 subscribers. ProNet said it could get the opportunity to serve more than 255,000 subscribers in Texas alone through the Houston purchase, a pending acquisition of the assets of Americom Paging Corp. and the purchase of the High Tech Communications network.
“After the completion of its six pending acquisitions, the company’s current subscriber base will increase to approximately 720,000 subscribers,” said Jackie Kimzey, ProNet chairman and chief executive officer. “We intend to continue our aggressive acquisition program by purchasing select paging businesses located in ProNet’s target market areas,” Kimzey said. ProNet said the Houston acquisition was funded through its $125 million credit facility.
