JACKSON, Miss. (Bloomberg) -- MCI WorldCom Inc., the No. 2 U.S. long distance company, completed its purchase of Wireless One Inc., a wireless cable-television services provider that filed for bankruptcy protection, officials said.
MCI WorldCom, which already holds two-thirds of Jackson, Mississippi-based Wireless One's senior notes, paid off bondholders and has agreed to pay about $23 million, or $1.32 a share, for Wireless One's existing stock, Wireless One officials said. The company now becomes an MCI WorldCom unit.Wireless One filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in Delaware in February, saying it wanted to shed more than $322 million in debt owed to bondholders. A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved Wireless One's reorganization plan--which included MCI WorldCom's acquisition of the company -- in October.
"Wireless One staff is excited to be a part of the MCI WorldCom family," Henry M. Burkhalter, Wireless One's president and chief executive, said in a release. "We will enter the new millennium with significant new potential and look forward to new opportunities."
Wireless One is just one of a number of wireless-cable companies that MCI WorldCom has scooped up in recent months.
Jackson, Mississippi-based MCI WorldCom and other long-distance companies want to acquire wireless-cable companies whose technology will allow them to provide high-speed data, Internet and phone services without paying fees to lease local phone networks.
In March, MCI WorldCom acquired $200 million in debt from several struggling wireless companies, buying one, CAI Wireless Systems Inc., less than a month later. CAI Wireless had emerged from Chapter 11 protection in Delaware in October 1998.
MCI WorldCom's shares rose 2 3/8 to 78 9/16 on the New York stock Exchange today.