Cook Inlet Region Inc.

• Author: KANE, ROGER
• Position: Brief Article

2000 Top 49ers Ranking: 4

Position Last Year: 5

1999 Revenue: $297 million

Number of Employees: 75

After bringing in a record $57.4 million in net income for 1999, there is but one thing Cook Inlet Region Inc.'s President and Chief Executive Officer Carl Marrs is concerned about: the Native corporation's bottom line.

"You have to have a long-term view. You must have cash flow, money for reinvestment, money for shareholders' dividends, and you have to hit some home runs once in awhile," he said. "You can from time to time hit them."

Marrs' strategy for hitting the long ball is simple: be selective about whom you partner with, surround yourself with the best teammates you can find, and wait for the right pitch. Nowhere have his tactics scored bigger than with CIRI's $115 million partnership with VoiceStream Wireless Holding Corp.

Deutsche Telekom, a telecommunications company based in Germany, has offered to purchase the company for $50 billion. The CIRI-controlled partnership holds licenses to provide personal communication services in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle, Tulsa and Washington, D.C.

If the sale is approved by federal regulators, Mans said the value of CIRI's investment would soar to between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion. According to the sale agreement, CIPI would swap its 8.1 million shares of VoiceStream stock for 25.9 million shares of Deutsche Telekom stock and $24.3 million.

Marrs said he just hopes CIPI shareholders will be patient, as the Federal Communication Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission must approve the sale, which could take 12 months to 18 months.

"It wasn't a bad ball, if it all comes out," Marrs said.

With more than 2 million customers nationwide, VoiceStream is the eighth largest wireless carrier in the United States. The German company wants VoiceStream because it offers GSM technology nationwide.

GSM, which stands for Global System for Mobile Communications, is a digital, cellular radio network operating in more than 200 countries worldwide. It provides almost complete coverage in Western Europe, and growing coverage in the Americas, Asia and elsewhere.

Of special interest is the capability of the GSM network to be used for data computing. Most people think of voice calls when they think of cellular phones. But because GSM is digital, you can connect your GSM-enabled phone to your laptop computer and send or receive e-mail, faxes, browse the...