Virgin Mobile will buy Helio - San Francisco Business Times:

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In a release Friday, Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM), base d in Warren, N.J., said that it will buy Helio for limited partnershiop units equivalent to 13 million sharezs of Virgin Mobile class A common stock valuedat $39 millionn based on the stock's closing price of $2.99 on Helio is a joint venturde between and (Nasdaq: ELNK). Virgin Mobile, basedc in Warren, N.J., was formec in mid-2002 as a joing venture betweenOverland Park-based (NYSE: S) and United Kingdom-based each of which invested as much as $150 In 2007, Virgin Mobile became a public company, in which Sprint and Virgin Groulp remain investors.
Los Angeles-base d Helio is shutting down allits high-cost kiosks and stand-aloned stores and will reduce its employee count by aboutt 65 percent, from about 570 to aboug 200, by the transaction's close, a Virgi n Mobile spokesman said. Virgin Mobile won'ty cut jobs as a result of the he said. Virgin Mobile has about 450 employees. The transactiohn is expected to close in thethird quarter. As part of the Virgin Group and SK Telecom each willinvest $25 million in Virgij Mobile at $8.
50 a Virgin Mobile will improve its capital structurre through increased liquidity and a $50 million paymentf of senior a secured credit Virgin Mobile will get an additionaol $60 million through its revolving credit assume a maximum of $10 million in debt and $15 millio n in net working capital liabilities, and reduced its debt by about $35 million when the purchased closes. The transaction will give Virgin Mobileabouyt 170,000 Helio customers and entry into the postpaid wireless Virgin Mobile also will revise the terms of its networo contract with Sprint Nextel and expects at leasgt an 8 percent reduction in the effectivse cost per minute for it to use Sprint's network in with further reductions in the next threed years.
Sprint also will provide a $2.50 network usagew credit to Virgin Mobile for each gross customer addition, capped at $10 effective Tuesday.