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Technology Stocks : GST Telecom (GSTX) 4th quarter earning -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (207)	10/13/1999 9:50:00 AM
From: MangoBoy	Respond to of 369

[GST Telecommunications Sells Action Telecom Assets] NTS Communications Buys Long Distance Assets and Operations VANCOUVER, Wash., Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- GST Telecommunications, Inc., a leading Integrated Communications Provider (ICP) in California and the western United States, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the long distance and interconnect equipment assets of GST Action Telecom, Inc., its Abilene, Texas-based long distance company, to NTS Communications. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The closing of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory compliance and customary conditions, is expected within 30 days. GST will retain Action's NAMS (Network Analysis Management System) product division. "The sale of these Action Telecom assets and our other non-core assets allows us to better concentrate our resources on growing higher-margin revenue opportunities like our enhanced data services," stated Joe Basile, president and chief executive officer of GST. "It's clearly in the best interest of our shareholders to focus on those core business services and move away from efforts that aren't in line with that focus." GST originally acquired the Texas-based long distance company in June of 1997. In August of 1998, as the result of sharpening its focus, the Company carefully evaluated its assets and business lines to identify those that do not fit within its core business strategies. The sale of the long distance portion of Action is the third in a series of divestitures, including the sale of most of the properties of GST Home, the Company's residential services division, in April 1999, and its assets in Guam in July 1999. GST also intends to divest itself of its extensive operations and facilities in Hawaii, and expects to conclude the sale of those assets by the end of 1999. "The acquisition of Action's long distance business will jump start NTS's expansion of our existing and highly successful local exchange and data products into the Abilene market," noted Barbara Andrews, president of NTS. "We intend to aggressively deploy our facilities-based local dial tone, broadband data, and Internet access products in Abilene and surrounding communities as a perfect complement to the existing long distance and interconnect businesses for which Action is so well known." NTS Communications, Inc., which is headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, is one of the largest privately-held Integrated Communications Providers (ICP) in the U.S. Founded in 1981 as a West Texas provider of long distance services, the company now offers a full range of facilities-based local, long distance, Internet access, private line transport, data and wireless services to retail and wholesale customers throughout Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Kansas. For more information about NTS, visit the company's web site at ntscom.com.