NextWave to Pay Investors $2.62 Billion

NextWave Telecom Inc. will distribute at least $2.62 billion to shareholders as it scraps plans to become a mobile-phone carrier and focuses instead on selling high-speed Internet access.

Stockholders will receive as much as $7.20 a share, 1.4% more than Monday’s closing share price of $7.10, NextWave said in a reorganization plan filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y.

Chief Executive Allen Salmasi is taking the company private and will begin providing Internet services in Las Vegas and New York. The plan is part of NextWave’s effort to end Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, begun six years ago when it couldn’t pay for mobile-phone licenses won in government auctions.

Its shares rose 16 cents to $7.26 in over-the-counter trading.