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Technology Stocks : Leap Wireless International (LWIN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (468)	8/11/1999 7:02:00 PM
From: Michael	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2737

Buried in article LEAP <intent to sell up to 2.27 million shares > Leap jumps at chance to sell OzPhone By Mike Drummond STAFF WRITER San Diego Union-Tribune August 11, 1999 Leap Wireless International's territory shrank by continental proportions yesterday after the San Diego carrier sold its Australian subsidiary, OzPhone, for $16.3 million. An affiliate of Australia's AAPT Ltd. -- that nation's No. 3 telecommunications company -- made Leap an offer it couldn't refuse with a deal that nearly tripled the return on an initial investment of $6.2 million. "An opportunity for Leap arose that we simply couldn't pass up," Leap's chief executive Harvey P. White said in a prepared statement. Qualcomm bought OzPhone in May 1998. Leap, a spinoff of Qualcomm, assumed control of OzPhone's wireless spectrum licenses after it became independent last September, but had yet to deploy mobile phone service Down Under. OzPhone's licenses cover 5.86 million potential customers. Other Leap officials said that the company would make more on this sale than it could offering wireless service in the foreseeable future, given Australia's regulatory and market climates. As it has done domestically, Leap had intended to offer flat-rate, unlimited wireless service in Australia. Leap was evaluating how to deploy service when AAPT offered to buy the licenses, which cover Brisbane, Perth, Cairns, Mackay, Maryborough, Grafton, Tasmania, regional West Australia, remote Queensland and remote West Australia. Leap still has a global presence, having launched service in Chile late last year, followed by a Mexico launch in February. More recently, the company rolled out service in Russia. It also recently won federal blessing to own more than 30 domestic wireless spectrum licenses, provided it severs certain links to its big benefactor, Qualcomm, including a provision that Leap only deploy or invest in companies using Qualcomm's code division multiple access, or CDMA, mobile phone technology. In a separate development yesterday, Leap filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission an intent to sell up to 2.27 million shares of common stock as part of an existing agreement with Qualcomm. The so-called conversion agreement was crafted as part of the spinoff and does not affect Leap's debt to Qualcomm. On Wall Street yesterday, Leap closed up 121/2 cents at $17.121/2.