UK-based Mercury Communications Ltd has sold its 51% interest in Mercury Paging Ltd to a US management team for 30.6m British pounds. The remaining two shareholders, Mobile Telecommunications Technology Corp, with a 29% stake and Motorola Ltd, which held the remaining 20%, have also sold their shares to the new team for a total consideration of 60m British pounds. The management team is led by Janice Fuellhart, founder and former chief executive officer of USA Mobile and Richard Reiss, a managing partner of private investment firm Cumberland Associates, Cumberland Partners and Long View Partners. The acquisition will be jointly financed by the management and a group of international investors, headed by CS First Boston and Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Botts & Co and CS First Boston were advisers to the venture. Mercury said the company had been looking for a way to streamline its business to focus on what it saw as its core telecommunications market for some time now, not simply offload parts of its empire. And the balance sheet appears to give credence to this. The paging division contributed profits of 6.4m pounds to the company coffers on revenue of 22m pounds in the year to March 31. Ms Fuellhart sold the US paging operator, USA Mobile last year to Arch Communications Inc for $450, and is now looking to break into the UK paging arena. As part of the deal, Mercury will continue to offer paging services to its customers, but will outsource the services to the new team, which plans to re-name itself Page One Communications to avoid any confusion, 28 days after completion of the deal. The new company plans to continue to operate and build on the full range of paging services and will eventually rebrand the business.
