American Mobile Allows Buyout Option to Lapse

American Mobile Systems Inc., a Woodland Hills operator of mobile-radio systems, said an option that gave it the right to require Fleet Call Inc. of Bloomfield, N.J., to buy out American Mobile’s shareholders in a cash merger expired Sunday. American Mobile obtained the option in 1989 when Fleet Call acquired some of American Mobile’s assets.

American Mobile said it allowed the option to expire without requiring Fleet Call to merge with it because the formula under which Fleet Call could have acquired American Mobile shares no longer reflected the full value of those shares. The price Fleet Call would have paid for the shares under the formula wasn’t disclosed, but American Mobile said changes in the regulatory environment and technological advances have boosted the value of the company in the past two years.

In addition, American Mobile said it hired Reinheimer & Co., an investment banking firm, to explore ways for it to reduce debt. It said options include the sale of some of its mobile-radio systems or the sale of equity in the company.