Lin Broadcasting

In by far the biggest takeover bid ever in the young cellular telephone industry, McCaw Cellular Communications Tuesday offered to buy LIN Broadcasting Corp. for $6 billion in a deal that would create a national communications giant. McCaw, a Kirkland, Wash., company that is already the nation's largest independent cellular phone firm, proposed the $120-a-share buyout in a letter sent to LIN headquarters in New York. McCaw, which currently holds a 9.8% stake in LIN, said Tuesday that it would "promptly commence a cash tender offer" for the LIN stock it doesn't already own. LIN said it will "study the offer carefully and act in the best interests of its shareholders."

A group including McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. has increased its stake in Lin Broadcasting Corp. to 7.64%, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a July 8 letter to Lin Broadcasting President Donald A. Pels, McCaw President Wayne Perry said his firm plans to buy more Lin Broadcasting shares because the New York company's litigation with Metromedia Inc. has decreased the price of its stock to a level that "represents a tremendous bargain."