Times Mirror Will Sell Its Microwave Unit : Key Managers, Brokerage Agree to Pay $175 Million

Times Mirror Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times and other media properties, said Monday that it has agreed to sell its microwave transmission unit to members of the subsidiary’s management and an affiliate of the investment banking firm of Dillon, Read & Co. The purchase price is about $175 million, the company said.

Times Mirror Microwave Communications will be acquired by a new concern, Transcontinental Communications, headed by Ralph J. Swett and George M. Batsche. Swett is chairman of Times Mirror Cable Television, parent of the microwave unit, and Batsche is president of the microwave firm.

A Times Mirror spokeswoman said the deal is expected to close in early 1986 and is subject to certain regulatory approvals and financial arrangements.

The microwave company, based in Austin, Tex., grew out of the 1979 purchase of three microwave transmission systems in Ohio and Texas. Since then, it has expanded into a 26-city network reaching from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh and carrying audio, video and data transmissions. It is one of the major channels for long-distance telephone traffic on independent carriers such as Sprint, MCI and ITT.

Part of Cable-TV Division

The microwave company is part of Times Mirror’s cable division, which also includes about 50 cable-television systems nationwide and an electronic information network called videotex. For the first nine months of this year, the cable division had revenue of $209.8 million and net earnings of $35 million. The microwave unit’s results aren’t reported separately.

The microwave subsidiary’s sale is the second major spinoff by Times Mirror in the last two months. In September, the company agreed to sell three of its seven television stations for $84 million in cash. The stations, located in Harrisburg, Pa.; Syracuse, N.Y., and Elmira, N.Y., were sold to a Michigan-based investor group.