Acquisition of Palmer Wireless set to close Oct. 6 - Palmer Wireless Inc's merger with Price Communications Inc

Mobile Phone News, Sept 29, 1997 by Wayne Wisehart

Palmer Wireless Inc. [PWIR] shareholders "overwhelmingly approved" the company's merger with Price Communications Inc. [PR], Palmer announced last week. The cash deal, in which Palmer will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Price, is expected to be completed Oct. 6. The surviving entity will be called Price Communications Wireless and will be based in Palmer's headquarters in the Fort Myers, Fla.

The definitive merger agreement calls for Price to pay an aggregate purchase price of $880 million, including repayment of debt, earlier this year. Palmer had 325,623 subscribers in four states in the Southeast as of June 30. Price is headed by former investment banker Robert Price, who also serves chairman of PriCellular Corp. [PC]; PriCellular had 199,800 subscribers in several regional cellular "clusters" as of June 30. Both Palmer Wireless and PriCellular are expected to upgrade their systems to time division multiple access technology. (Wayne Wisehart, Palmer Wireless, 813/433-8220.)