Palmer Wireless Inc. said it signed up its 200,000th cellular phone customer. Eight years ago, Palmer began operating its first cellular system in Fort Myers, Fla., and now owns and operates 15 nonwireline cellular telephone systems in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, covering a total population of 3.3 million, the company said. Palmer said all of the company’s systems are Cellular One affiliates and members of the North American Cellular Network.
Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Bear Communications and Page-Com Inc. in Dallas made their merger official earlier this month under the new name of BearCom. No financial details have been released regarding this stock-for-stock deal of the two wireless communications dealers, but combined gross revenues total $70 million. Page-Com Chairman John Watson retains that title with the new company, and Bear’s Jerry Denham will continue as chief executive officer. BearCom’s 300 employees currently serve 15 states, with an eye toward moving nationwide.
Spot Image Corp. said it has signed an agreement to be the exclusive North American distributor of Istar map products for the telecommunications market. Istar, a digital cartography company based in France, provides Spot image-based digital elevation models, maps and databases for use in wave propagation modeling, site engineering and business planning for cellular and personal communications services networks around the world. Istar’s products include Spot image-derived digital elevation models, land use classifications, digital images overlaid with vector networks and building height models based on aerial photography.
Glenayre Technologies Inc. said its shareholders have approved an increase in the number of authorized shares of common stock from 50 million to 200 million. Glenayre’s board of directors also announced a three-for-two split of the company’s common stock to be effected in the form of a 50 percent stock dividend and distributed on Dec. 29 to stockholders of record Dec. 22. In conjunction with the stock split, the company said it will not issue fractional shares, but will pay in lieu of fractional shares an amount based upon the last sale price of the common stock on the record date as reported on the NASDAQ National Market.
PriCellular Corp. announced that Janus Funds has purchased 2 million shares of its Class A common stock resulting in net proceeds of $25 million. The shares will be held by Janus Funds in several equity portfolios, PriCellular said. PriCellular owns, operates or has contracts to acquire, subject to the Federal Communications Commission approval, nearly 3.8 million pops primarily located in three clusters in the upper Midwest and New York areas.
Sprint Cellular Co. said it will purchase cellular operations belonging to Southeastern Cellular in eastern North Carolina after the two companies reached a definitive agreement. Sprint said it expects to assume ownership control of the operations during the first quarter 1996 after the agreement is approved by regulatory and governmental agencies.
