GTE to Take $245-Million Charge for Contel Merger

GTE Corp. said Thursday that it will take a one-time, after-tax charge of $245 million for its merger with Contel Corp.

The charge reflects the costs of consummating the merger, as well as costs of integrating the operations of the two companies, GTE said.

GTE said it expects the $6-billion merger to be completed by the end of the first quarter. It will make GTE the second-largest cellular phone operator in the United States and the largest U.S.-based local-exchange phone company.

Separately, GTE said it would get a $40-million gain on the $102-million sale of its interests in some cellular telephone properties in Georgia and Kentucky to BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta.

Although GTE said the Contel acquisition, planned as a stock swap, “will result in far more efficient operations,” the company gave no further information on expected staff cuts or the closings of facilities.

“For the most part, we believe a lot of this will be done through attrition,” spokesman Tony Hamilton said of job cuts.

The companies have already said that Contel’s Atlanta headquarters will be closed and that the GTE Mobile Communications cellular telephone subsidiary would be moved from Houston to Atlanta.