AT&T;’s McCaw Unit to Buy Rest of LIN : Telecom: $3.3-billion move may end dispute over cellular phone company’s value. LIN shareholders had sued.

NEW YORK — AT&T; Corp. said Friday that its McCaw Cellular Communications unit has decided to buy the 48% of LIN Broadcasting Corp. it does not already own for $127.50 a share, or $3.3 billion in cash.

The decision is a major step in ending a dispute over the cellular telephone company’s value.

The price was determined by a process set in 1989 when McCaw bought 52% of LIN. McCaw was later acquired by AT&T; for $11.5 billion in a deal completed last September.

Once McCaw and LIN have completed their merger agreement, LIN’s public shareholders must vote on the deal.

AT&T; accepted an independent valuation of LIN by investment bankers Wasserstein Perella, a compromise between the $155-a-share valuation by LIN’s advisers and the $105 estimated by advisers to AT&T.;

The agreed-upon price values the total entity at $6.8 billion.

Public shareholders in LIN had filed five class-action lawsuits against AT&T; in February, charging that AT&T;’s $105-a-share valuation was too low. Many analysts said at the time that they were surprised by how low AT&T;’s advisers valued LIN.

However, because the independent figure is roughly halfway between the two camps, AT&T;’s low valuation succeeded in keeping the overall price down.

The announcement was made shortly before the stock market closed. LIN shares closed up 75 cents at $122.25 on the Nasdaq market, while AT&T; was down 50 cents at $51.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Analysts had expected AT&T;’s decision and said the communications giant will have to live with paying an extra $562.5 million to proceed with integrating LIN into its national cellular network.

LIN holds some of the most valuable cellular licenses in the country, covering 26 million people. It has major ownership interests in cellular phone systems serving New York, Los Angeles, the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and Houston.

LIN’s net revenue in 1994 was $876 million, and it had net income of $564.1 million, most of it due to a one-time gain. In 1993, it had revenue of $689 million and a net loss of $60.7 million.