ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. released first-quarter earnings, elected a new chairman and completed both the acquisition of NationPage and initial construction of a nationwide Asynchronous Transfer Mode network.
Metrocall’s first quarter net loss was $47.7 million, compared with a net loss of $42 million last year. However, the company announced a gain on the redemption of preferred stock, which resulted in a net income applicable to common stockholders of $28.1 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a loss of $43.8 million, or $1.05 per share, last year.
Net revenues for the quarter were $132.3 million. The company also reported net subscriber additions of 61,924, bringing its total base to almost 6 million. Added to this base were 80,000 additional subscribers gained through the acquisition of NationPage from AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which the company completed Friday.
William L. Collins III, Metrocall president and chief executive officer, was elected chairman of the board, succeeding Richard Johnston, who has stepped down to serve as senior managing partner of Cahill, Warnock & Co. L.L.P.
Finally, Metrocall said it completed the initial phase of its corporate ATM network. Originally designed to support internal operations, Metrocall said it will make the network available to its subscribers by migrating wireless messaging traffic to the ATM network via an upgrade of its messaging switches by Glenayre Technologies Inc.
“By combining our commercial and internal voice mail and data networking over the same ATM backbone, we are effectively able to eliminate the cost of almost two out of every three circuits that were previously needed to support our nationwide operations,” said Bob Pawa, Metrocall senior vice president of information services.
