CALIFORNIA : BRIEFLY / COMPANY TOWN ANNEX : Westwood One Completes Metro Purchase

Westwood One Inc., one of the largest U.S. distributors of radio programs, completed its purchase of Metro Networks Inc. for $1.2 billion in stock, making it the No. 1 provider of traffic news. Culver City-based Westwood One, whose programming includes Shadow Traffic broadcast reports, swapped 1.5 common shares for each share of Houston-based Metro. That valued Metro at about $75 a share, or 1% higher than Metro’s closing stock price Thursday of $74.25. In addition, Westwood said it approved the buyback of as much as $200 million of its stock, or about 8% of its shares outstanding.