Ameritech to Invest $472 Million in GE Information Subsidiary : Telecommunications: Chicago-based Bell operator says it will buy a four-year note in the fast-growing electronic data service.

Ameritech Corp., in the latest investment by a regional Bell operating company outside its core telephone business, has agreed to pour $472 million into the information services unit of General Electric Co.

Under the definitive agreement announced Monday, Chicago-based Ameritech will buy a four-year note in GE Information Services, a fast-growing unit of the Fairfield, Conn.-based manufacturer that had sales of $600 million last year.

The note will be convertible to a 30% equity stake in GE Information Services if Ameritech succeeds in overturning federal regulations barring it from providing long-distance telecommunications services.

GE Information Services provides electronic data interchange services, allowing businesses such as retail chains to link their computers and cash registers with suppliers and financial institutions. GE spokesman Robert Plumb said the industry is growing at a 20% annual rate and sales at GE Information Services, which has 2,600 employees, have been growing at “double digits.”

The “Baby Bell” regional phone companies have been investing heavily in businesses like cable television, cellular telephones and electronic data services in an effort to capitalize on growth outside their regulated local telephone business.

Ameritech has thus far avoided the more adventurous investments in media best exemplified by Bell Atlantic Corp.’s proposed $21.4-billion merger with Tele-Communications Inc., the nation’s largest cable television operator.

“We’re talking to a variety of partners,” Ameritech spokesman Mike Brand said.

The new company will be owned and operated by GE and headed by Hellene S. Runtagh, the current president and chief executive of GE Information Services. GE said the company will develop and market, on a worldwide basis, products that facilitate communication between companies in the health care, finance, banking, retail, manufacturing and computer industries.

Ameritech and GE declined to provide more detail about Ameritech’s investment. It will convert to a 30% stake “upon removal of legal restrictions,” the company said, and at that point Ameritech also will have two of five seats on the company’s board.

Brand said the company is participating in a legal challenge by all seven Baby Bells against the regulations barring them from providing long-distance data services. In addition, Ameritech has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to receive an exemption from those rules as part of a proposed opening of its service area to competition from alternative telecommunications providers.

It is the second major investment announced by Ameritech in two days. On Sunday, Ameritech said it would invest $437.5 million along with Deutsche Bundespost Telekom to acquire a 30% interest in the Hungarian telephone company, Matav.

Ameritech shares slipped 25 cents to $78.625 on the New York Stock Exchange. GE lost 87.5 cents to $103.25.