McCaw Offers $6.4 Billion for LIN as Battle Heats Up

KIRKLAND, Wash. —  McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. today raised the stakes in the bidding war to create the nation’s largest cellular telephone company with a new takeover offer valuing LIN Broadcasting Corp. at $6.4 billion, up from an earlier $5.6-billion bid.

The new McCaw offer is $125 a share for 22 million shares of LIN, enough to give it a majority of LIN’s stock. Its prior offer was $110 for each outstanding share.

The news boosted LIN’s stock $3.625 to $113.50 in NASDAQ over-the-counter trading.

BellSouth Corp., the Atlanta-based Baby Bell, is competing with McCaw to strike a deal with LIN, the No. 7 cellular operator. Its proposal, approved by LIN, would combine the companies’ cellular holdings and give LIN and BellSouth each about half of the new company’s stock.

McCaw has been expected to enhance its offer for LIN to bust up the BellSouth/LIN deal and protect its dominant role in the fast-growing cellular telephone business.

BellSouth, a major player in its own right, would create a strong challenge to McCaw’s leading role in the industry if it completes the deal. The major operators are jockeying to build up their franchises to create a national mobile telephone network.

McCaw recently sold one big cellular property and offered to buy another in strategic moves aimed at bolstering its position in the LIN takeover fight.