DALLAS-WebLink Wireless Inc., one of the nation’s largest messaging carriers with more than 2 million customers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas division.
The move comes as no real surprise; WebLink has previously said it would file for bankruptcy protection in order to restructure the company and get some relief from its creditors.
The move comes a few weeks after a failed merger between WebLink and Metrocall Inc. The two companies had planned to merge in bankruptcy court by concurrently filing for Chapter 11. The ambitious plan fell apart when Metrocall pulled out of the deal, citing an announcement from WebLink detailing layoffs and sales channel cutbacks. Insiders pegged the real reason as WebLink’s inability to raise sufficient funds to continue through the merger.
Metrocall officials were unavailable for comment late last week, as were officials for WebLink.
WebLink has been suffering along with the rest of the messaging industry. Last week the company announced it was negotiating a proposed $25 million debtor-in-possession facility with its lenders. However, WebLink said there could be no assurance that it would be able to obtain the money, which WebLink said it would need to stay financed through the end of the year.
In addition, the number of WebLink’s one-way paging subscribers has been rapidly declining, and those customers represent the bulk of WebLink’s revenues.
