Clarity Partners – Communications, Media and Business Services Private Equity Investors

Investor Groups Acquire PrimeCo; Primetheus is the Mascot of PrimeCo Personal Communications. Primetheus Can Keep Jabbering with His New Parents, Who Could Send the Pink Alien Nationwide

Chicago - June 27, 2001

The funny little mascot of PrimeCo Personal Communications, a wireless firm headquartered in Itasca, is being acquired by six groups of investors. Terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close later this year.

"This market is the crown jewel of PrimeCo, and we'll have the ability to use this brand name in any market, if we choose to expand," said Barry Porter, managing partner of Los Angeles-based Clarity Group, the lead investor. Clarity also has backed WebTV Networks and Univision Communications.

The other investor groups are Pacific Capital Group Inc., Trimaran Capital Partners LLC, Chicago-based Green Leaf Ridge Co. LLC, JPMorgan Partners and Tregan Partners.

They purchased the PrimeCo brand name, the network and its base of subscribers in Chicago, Rockford, Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield Decatur and Peoria. Also included were South Bend and Fort Wayne, Ind., markets where PrimeCo has spectrum licenses it hasn't developed yet.

PrimeCo has about 12 percent of the Illinois market, reaching about 400,000 subscribers.<p>"We expect to build a successful stand-alone, independent company and then take the brand national," said Kraig Pyer, PrimeCo vice president.

PrimeCo has 450 employees, including 100 at its Itasca headquarters with the rest scattered among 35 stores. No layoffs or management changes are expected, said Pyer. "We expected business to remain as usual," said Pyer.

PrimeCo's sale has been anticipated for more than a year as communication companies continue to gobble each other up.

Bell Atlantic and AirTouch Communications Inc., which Vodafone bought in 1999, formed PrimeCo.

Meanwhile, GTE bought Ameritech's cellular operations when that company merged with SBC Communications. SBC already operated Cellular One in this market and wasn't allowed to hold two licenses for wireless service. Cellular One since has been renamed Cingular.

Then GTE merged with Bell Atlantic, which then took the name Verizon and renamed the two companies combined wireless operations Verizon Wireless.

However, regulators ruled that Verizon could only own one wireless business in this market, as well as in Texas and Virginia. The government ordered Verizon to form a trust to hold PrimeCo until those markets could be divested.

Last year, AT&T Wireless acquired PrimeCo's Texas market, and NTelos obtained the Virginia market. Since they both had established brand names in those regions, they folded in the PrimeCo customers and pink-slipped the pink alien, said Pyer.

The Illinois market was the last to be sold and offer the brand name. The deal is expected to close this fall after regulatory approval.

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