57% of American Mobile to Be Sold to Fleet Call

A New Jersey company has agreed to acquire a majority interest in American Mobile Systems Inc., a struggling Woodland Hills-based provider of radio-dispatch and mobile-radio services in the Southeast, for a total of about $65 million.

Fleet Call Inc. in Rutherford, N. J., said it will purchase at least 7.14 million shares of American Mobile stock for $7 per share in cash and Florida mobile radio properties, or a total of $50 million.

After receiving $5 million of the purchase price, Fleet Call will also be granted a five-year option to acquire 1.8 million shares of American Mobile stock at $8.50 a share, or a total of $15.3 million.

If the initial stock acquisition and option are exercised, Fleet Call would own a 57% interest in American Mobile.

It wasn’t immediately known what impact the proposed transaction would have on American Mobile’s announcement earlier this month that it tentatively agreed to merge with Transit Communications Corp. and JCC Holdings Inc., two privately owned radio dispatch services based in Georgia.

Fleet Call says it is the second-largest owner and operator of specialized mobile radio systems in the United States, and the largest in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. It also recently announced plans to merge with the third-largest firm, Dispatch Communications Inc.

American Mobile said the Fleet Call transaction would help it achieve its goal of putting in digital radio services in Florida, and would give the company access to some of Fleet Call’s vendors.