Formus Communications Inc. filed a registration statement for an initial public offering of its class A common stock. Formus, a wireless broadband carrier, expects to complete the offering by the middle of the year.
Advanced Radio Telecom Corp. successfully bid $77 million to acquire several licenses in the Federal Communications Commission’s 39 GHz auction. The licenses will add coverage of 355 million pops, increasing ART’s total coverage to 930 million pops.
Alltel Corp. transferred control of the Las Cruces, N.M., wireless property from Bell Atlantic Corp., completing all property swaps in Alltel’s southwest region. Alltel said it would offer its new Total Freedom calling plans in the region using digital dual-mode and tri-mode wireless phones. Customers looking to upgrade to the new service plan would receive rebates for future equipment purchases.
GN Netcom, a designer and manufacturer of hands-free communication technologies, announced it acquired Jabra Corp. for $40 million plus earn-out payments, totaling a maximum of $35 million. Jabra will operate as a business unit within the GN Netcom Group and will continue to be headquartered in San Diego.
The board of directors at Nortel Networks Corp. declared a quarterly dividend of 2 cents per share payable June 30 to shareholders of record at the close of business June 8. The company noted the dividend takes into account the May 5 two-for-one stock split on each of the issued and outstanding common shares of Nortel stock.
Barnes & Noble.com is expanding its mobile commerce initiative through an agreement with AT&T Digital PocketNet service that will position the online bookseller as the premiere retail partner on AT&T’s recently introduced wireless Internet service.
In addition, Barnes & Noble.com announced it has formed a relationship with BuzzHits to develop and launch a wireless listening wall, which will allow customers to preview songs using a mobile phone before making a music purchases.
