BUSINESS BRIEFS

Cellular Technical Services Co. Inc. said its board of directors has declared a two-for-one stock split of its common stock. The stock’s $.001 par value per share will be affected by a 100 percent stock dividend whereby each holder of common stock on June 24 will receive one additional share of common stock for each share held, said the company. CTS will distribute the additional shares on June 27. As a result of the stock split, the issued and outstanding shares of common stock will increase from about 11 million shares to 22 million shares prior to giving effect to any exercise of the company’s outstanding options, said CTS. The company develops, markets and supports real-time information management systems.

ProNet Inc. announced it has amended its credit facility to increase the borrowing potential to $300 million from $125 million. ProNet said the increased credit facility, coupled with its recently completed debt and equity offerings, positions the company for additional growth and expansion.

Horizon Cellular Corp. and Sygnet Communications Inc. have agreed to the principal terms of the sale of Horizon’s Pennsylvania 1, 6 and 7 markets as well as its New York 3 market for $250 million. Horizon said the four markets combined contain a population of about 1.3 million. The proceeds from the sale of assets to Sygnet, together with the proceeds from previously announced asset sales, will total about $375 million, said Horizon. The company intends to use the proceeds to retire existing bank debt and to tender for all $206 million of its senior subordinated discount notes at a price calculated to result in a yield to the first call on Oct. 1, 1997, at a 200 basis point premium to the applicable treasury at the time of the offer.

RangeStar Telecommunications Ltd. announced the extension of its antenna performance program with the Georgia Tech Research Institute. RangeStar said it has developed and patented an antenna technology that increases the range of cellular phones from 50 percent to more than 100 percent, resulting in more talk time, fewer dropped calls and clearer reception. Georgia Tech will use advanced computer modeling to optimize the performance of RangeStar’s antennas with individual model phones produced by various manufacturers, said RangeStar.

Metrocall Inc. announced it extended the expiration date of its tender offer for 2.1 million shares of common stock of A+ Network Inc. to June 24. The extension allowed Metrocall time to circulate a supplement to its offer to purchase previously provided to A+ Network shareholders, said Metrocall. The company provided A+ Network shareholders additional descriptive material relating to certain terms of the proposed merger and related transactions. Metrocall said the original terms of the offer and the proposed merger of A+ Network into Metrocall are unchanged.

ABOUT AUTHOR