Gen Term Agrees to Acquire Phone Company

Gen Term Corp., a Costa Mesa computer-repair and telecommunications company, said it has reached an agreement in principal to purchase a privately held long-distance telephone company that will make the once-bankrupt company one of the players in the competition among long-distance carriers.

Gen Term, formerly General Terminal Corp. before it came out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court reorganization 26 months ago, would not name the company it plans to buy.

But the firm’s newly named president and chief executive, John P. Mourraille, said in a prepared statement that the new company “will position Gen Term among the 15 largest long-distance carriers in the United States.” The purchase price was not disclosed.

In 1985, Gen Term acquired Phoenix Telcom of Sausalito, which provides long-distance services to corporate and commercial accounts through telephone lines it leases. Gen Term is not planning yet to fold Telcom into the new carrier it is buying, said Roger Rivet, outgoing president of Gen Term. Rivet, who is involved in other businesses, will remain as the company’s executive vice president.

Gen Term also is creating a telecommunications data-processing unit and service bureau subsidiary called Telesolutions to help Gen Term, its affiliates and outside companies specializing in such markets as credit card and private pay-telephone service.