CHICAGO-In efforts to comply with rules for providing personal communications services, Ameritech Corp. is divesting its minority cellular interests in a number of GTE Corp. cellular partnerships.
Ameritech said it will relinquish its share in GTE’s Indianapolis, Cleveland and Rockford, Ill., cellular markets for cash, and gain GTE’s minority interest in the companies’ Detroit-Flint, Mich., partnership.
Ameritech won broadband PCS licenses in the Cleveland and Indianapolis major trading areas, paying $158 million for the two licenses. The divestitures were the last hurdle preventing Ameritech from operating as a PCS provider in Indianapolis, commented the company.
Ameritech’s total pre-tax gain for the exchanges will be about $69 million, the company said.
In other news, Ameritech also reported strong second quarter financial growth. For the quarter ended June 30, Ameritech posted net income of $503.5 million, or 91 cents per common share, a 13 percent increase when compared with net income of $446.6 million, or 81 cents per common share, for the same period in 1994. For the first half of 1995, net income rose 120.7 percent to $1.1 billion, from $490.4 million in 1994, according to the company.
Net revenues for the quarter totaled $3.4 billion, up nearly 6 percent from $3.2 billion in second quarter 1994.
Growth in cellular subscribers was up 50.5 percent to 1.6 million for the second quarter, compared with about 1 million in the second quarter 1994.
