PSINet to buy Transaction Network for $705 mln-WSJ
NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Internet service provider PSINet Inc. (Nasdaq:PSIX - news) agreed to buy Transaction Network Services Inc. (NYSE:TNI - news), a provider of data communications and electronic commerce services, for $705 million, the Wall Street Journal reported in Monday's online edition.
The paper said the boards of both companies have approved the deal, which calls for PSINet to pay $45.28 a share in cash and stock, and that an announcement is expected Monday.
Each share of Reston, Va.-based Transaction Network will be converted into 0.50 of a share of PSINet plus $22.50 in cash with the deal expected to close by the end of the year, the paper said.
Transaction Network's shares closed up 6-5/16 at 34-1/2 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, making the deal about a 24 percent premium over Transaction Network's closing price Friday. PSINet shares closed down 21/32 at 45-9/16 on the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday.
PSINet executives told the paper the acquisition should immediately add to the company's earnings.
The pact moves Herndon, Va.-based PSINet closer toward its goal of expanding into a global Internet-service provider for businesses with the ability to offer a full package of services including electronic commerce services, the Journal said.
The companies could not immediately be reached by Reuters for comment.
But William Schrader, PSINet's chairman and chief executive officer, told the Journal Sunday: ``Our intent is to provide businesses everything they need for electronic-commerce infrastructure for the 21st century. This gives us a solution customers have been crying out for.'
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