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Metrocall Inc. is a public company incorporated as Advanced Communication Inc in 1965, which provides advanced wireless messaging services, including a two-way messaging and Internet-based content delivery. The company is the second largest paging company in the United States, with a strong customer base of nearly 6 million. In addition to this, the company is one of the largest wireless data and messaging companies in the US.

The company, initially incorporated as a private company by Harry L Brock, became a public company in the year 1993. At the time, the company held about 200,000 pagers in service. The company, however, acquired FirstPage USA Inc. in 1993 after it made an initial public offer (IPO) in the same year. The company registered a growth of around 20 pc in sales during the period. The factors such as, product enhancement, easy affordability and increasing pager acceptance by subscribers are attributed to the inflated sales growth rate. However, despite the increased growth in sales, the company posted a net loss of $2.2 million on revenue, mostly because of a one-time charge of $4.8 million, during the period.

For the next two years acquisition activities went on comfortably, until in 1995 the company stumbled on major difficulty when the company chairman Brock was charged of not pursuing acquisition more aggressively. The scuffle resulted in appointment of a new chairman, Richard M. Johnston, for the company. To add to the woe, the company lost the acquisition bid of a big pager company in the same year. The internal strife, eventually, led to loss of investors’ confidence, and consequently the company stock fell significantly. The company needed to expand its customer base, even though it had about 1 million subscribers at the time, to survive the consolidation wave the industry was going through.

At the end of 1995, the company was ranked as the sixth largest paging company in the United States. The company stock fell to less than $10 by 1996 signaling major loss of investors’ confidence. Eventually, the stock reached an abysmal low level of $5 per share by the end of the year. The company registered a loss of $49.1 million for the year. However, acquisition activity continued, albeit at a much slower pace, over the period, despite weak financial scenario.

In the year 1998 the company made a big acquisition of AT&T’s paging division that expanded its customer base by 1.2 million. However, the company continued to report loss to the extent of $129.1 million, notwithstanding the fact that it commanded 5.75 million subscribers in the period under review.

In 1999, the company launched a wireless Internet-based content delivery service. By the end of the year the company started operations of a new ‘strategic business unit’, called Metrocall.net. This made the company more focused on the Internet-based wireless services. The new business unit is aimed at marketing of broadband internet access, wireless e-mail, and other services. This would enable the company to resell Covad DSL services to the customers through Metrocall.net (later renamed as Inciscent), once it reached an agreement with digital subscriber line (DSL) provider Covad Communications. In addition to this, in the same year, the company made a contract with Glenayre Technologies Inc which would ‘upgrade’ the wireless network, thereby making the company offer better services, such as voicemail, wireless e-mail and Internet-based information services, to its customers. However, the company still continued to register net loss as high as $172.5 million, attributed mostly to ‘acquisition-related amortization costs’.

The company made announcement that it would acquire NationPage, a subsidiary of the company acquired by AT&T in 2000. The deal would cost $13 million and add around 80,000 subscribers to the company.

The situation started improving for the company in the beginning of 2000 .The company gained $51 million in ‘equity financing’ from three new investors- PSINet, investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc and Aether Systems Inc. moreover, the three firms agreed to build a high-tech joint venture with Metrocall.net, as per data available from company sources. The Metrocall stock surged up from $2 per share to $6 per share, which eventually reached more than $11 a share, on news of equity financing.


In the same year, Metrocall launched My2Way (a two-way wireless data and messaging service), which enabled the subscribers to ‘send and receive’ wireless messages and e-mails and access internet through a wireless device. Among other functions, the venture also included address book, notepad, and calendar, to name a few.

Nevertheless, the company’s revenue continued to decline and losses mounted over the period, despite sincere efforts made by the company to boost sales and profit margin. The NASDAQ officials notified that Metrocall would be delisted if it failed to maintain the minimum bid price of $5.

However, ‘positive developments’ too continued along with mounting losses and poor financial performance in the same year. Finally, in 2000 and 2001 the company received a substantial financial stimulus from the investing firm Hicks, Muse. In addition, the company’s ambitious move to build a corporate ATM network was completed in 2000. The move was expected to add another 6 million subscribers to the customer base, apart from giving a competitive advantage to the company in the wireless marketplace.

Source: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Metrocall-Inc-Company-History.html

City:	Cuba
State:	New York
Zip Code:	14727
County:	Allegany
County Population:	50602
Time Zone:	Eastern

Type:	Landline
Date of registration:	24/02/2007
Time:	02/13/2012 10:34:22 AM
Rate Center:	Cuba
Switch CLLI:	BFLPNYBFDS0
OCN:	4006