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To: Ed Swanson who wrote (80460)	6/23/1999 9:34:00 PM
From: DanielleC	Respond to of 119973

MAJOR NEWS ON OMPT!!!!!!!! VoiceStream Agrees to Buy Omnipoint for $4.5 Billion Bellevue, Washington, June 23 (Bloomberg) -- VoiceStream Wireless Corp. agreed to buy Omnipoint Corp. for about $4.5 billion in stock, cash and assumed debt to create a coast-to- coast U.S. cellular telephone network. VoiceStream said it would pay 0.825 shares and $8 in cash for each share of Omnipoint, or $32.3375 a share, a 55 percent premium over Omnipoint's closing share price today. Omnipoint also had $2.15 billion in long-term debt at the end of the first quarter that VoiceStream will assume. VoiceStream and Omnipoint use the global system for mobile communications, or ''GSM'' -- a digital standard. On their own, their customer growth was hamstrung because they only offered service in limited regions. The combination gives VoiceStream a nationwide network to compete against AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc., which use technologies that differ from GSM and have coast-to-coast coverage. Analysts and investors have long speculated that Omnipoint, which offers services in the Midwest and East Coast, would be bought. VoiceStream operates primarily in the Western U.S. The Bethesda, Maryland-based company has been seeking strategic investors for about a year and this spring said it was negotiating with several companies. Investments, Ventures VoiceStream also said late today that Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd., which holds a 24 percent stake in VoiceStream, has agreed to invest $957 million cash in the combined company. Hutchison Telecom is owned by the Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. investment firm based in Hong Kong. And VoiceStream said it will start a joint venture with Cook Inlet Region Inc. to buy some licenses held by Omnipoint. Cook Inlet, an Anchorage, Alaska-based company owned by 6,900 Alaskan Indian, Eskimo and Aleut descendants, will own 50.1 percent of the venture. The combined company, together with the Cook Inlet joint venture, will have licenses to provide GSM wireless service to 175 million people in the U.S. Doug Smith, chairman of Omnipoint, will become vice chairman of VoiceStream. Shares of VoiceStream, based in Bellevue, Washington, rose 1/8 to 29 1/2. Omnipoint, based in Bethesda, Maryland, rose 1/16 to 20 13/16. The acquisition was announced after the close of U.S. trading. The purchase is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Jun/23/1999 21:16 For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P. Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P.