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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis-based Brightpoint Inc. is increasing by $30 million, to $80 million, the amount of shares it plans to repurchase from Denmark holding company NC Telecom Holding A/S.
The cell phone distributor said late Monday that directors approved repurchasing up to an additional 10 million shares for $62 million. Brightpoint so far has repurchased $18 million of its shares priced at $6.20 each.
Brightpoint initially had planned to buy back $50 million of stock when it announced the repurchase in October, as part of a settlement agreement with NC Telecom.
In total, Brightpoint plans to buy back nearly 13 million shares from NC Telecom by July 31, 2011.
NC Telecom owned Denmark-based Dangaard Telecom before Brightpoint bought the cell phone distributor in August 2007. Brightpoint paid $385 million in stock and assumed $350 million in Dangaard debt.
The acquisition made Brightpoint the world’s biggest cell phone distributor. The company handled 80 million of the 1 billion wireless devices sold worldwide in 2009.
But the deal also swelled the company’s debt, to $333 million at the end of 2008.
Under the settlement agreement with NC Telecom announced in October, Brightpoint settled its indemnification claims against NC Holding. Also, NC Holding no longer has the right to appoint a representative to serve on Brightpoint’s board.
Brightpoint stock fell 2 cents per share Monday, closing at $6.72.
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