Three wireless companies announced dividend payments last week. Qualcomm Inc. announced a quarterly cash dividend of 9 cents per common share payable Jan. 4 to shareholders of record at the close of business Dec. 7. Sprint Nextel Corp. declared fourth-quarter dividends for the company’s common stock of 2.5 cents per share payable Dec. 30 to shareholders of record at the close of business Dec. 9. Rural Cellular Corp. declared payment of four of the quarterly dividends on its outstanding 11.38-percent senior exchangeable preferred stock. The dividends were payable Nov. 15, 2004; Feb. 14, 2005; May 15, 2005; and Aug. 15, 2005. The dividends total about $119 per share, including accrued interest. The aggregate total dividends of about $17.8 million will be paid from existing cash, said RCC.
Diversified Agency Services acquired mobile marketing services and technology company Ipsh. San Francisco-based Ipsh was founded four years ago by Nihal Mehta and Mike Jelley. The company, which has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco, develops and deploys turnkey mobile marketing solutions. Diversified is a unit of Omnicom Group Inc., a global marketing and corporate communications company.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. said it adjusted the number of customers on its network at the end of the second quarter from 51.596 million to 51.442 million customers, following corrections to its management reporting systems related to its acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. last fall. Cingular noted the adjustment would have no impact on its previous financial statements and represented less than 0.3 percent of its customer base. Cingular still retains a healthy, though dwindling lead over No. 2 operator Verizon Wireless, which counted nearly 47.4 million customers at the end of the second quarter. Verizon Wireless is expected to add nearly double the 1.1 million customers Cingular is forecast to add during the recently completed third quarter.
