CHICAGO-Competitive local exchange carrier USN Communications Inc. has increased the size of its initial public offering to 8 million shares, and plans to use some of the proceeds to add cellular services to its local and long-distance product bundle with the acquisition of Connecticut Telephone, the company announced.
USN filed an amended registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to increase its planned common stock offering, and to increase its underwriters’ over-allotment option up to 1.2 million additional shares. Lead managed by Merrill Lynch & Co., the IPO also will help fund the enhancement of the company’s billing system and the expansion of its sales and customer care organizations, USN said.
The acquisition of Connecticut Telephone, the fourth-largest cellular reseller in the country, adds 64,000 cellular and 15,000 paging subscribers to USN’s customer base. “Cellular service is a critical and logical extension to our product offering,” said Thomas Elliott, chairman, president and chief executive officer of USN.
“For our target market of small to medium businesses, cellular is a frequently requested service.”
