TECHNOLOGY - Sept. 9, 1994

GTE Seeks Contel Shares It Doesn’t Own: The company offered to buy the 10% stake of Contel Cellular Inc. held by the public for $22.50 per share, a proposal with an overall value of $224 million. GTE Corp. acquired the other 90% of the company as part of its $6.6-billion merger with Contel Corp. in 1991. Contel Cellular’s stock rose 32% on the news. It finished up $5.75 at $23.50 in Nasdaq trading. GTE finished up 12.5 cents at $30.875 on the New York Stock Exchange. Following the merger, GTE’s cellular business, the nation’s second-largest with 1.9 million customers, will be operated under the name GTE Mobilnet. Contel Cellular accounts for 621,000 customers of that total. It owns systems in 32 cities and acts as a limited partner for systems in 27 other cities and 59 rural service areas.