Dex shareholders approve merger

Dex One shareholders have given the go-ahead to the yellow pages company's proposed merger with Texas-based SuperMedia.

Shareholders accounting for 40.8 million shares, or 80 percent of the total outstanding shares, approved the deal Wednesday, with most of the rest not voting at all. Of the votes cast, 99.9 percent voted for the merger, said spokesman Tyler Gronbach.

"It's a major merger milestone," CEO Alfred Mockett said after Wednesday afternoon's shareholders meeting, held at the company's Cary headquarters. "It's great to see the overwhelming support for the deal."

Just a single shareholder attended Wednesday's meeting, which lasted a little more than four minutes.

SuperMedia shareholders also considered the deal Wednesday, but results weren't immediately available.

Mockett said that the Dex shareholder approval "keeps us on track to complete the deal in the first half of the year" -- one way or the other.

One way would be to win support of 100 percent of the two company's lenders to restructure their debt by pushing out the maturity dates two years to 2016. Failing that, the company expects to file for a pre-packaged bankruptcy that would enable it to complete the deal.

"I'm not going to put odds on this," Mockett said. "It's an either/or. We continue to work both tracks."

The companies disclosed in December that, at that time, they had garnered the support of between 81 percent and 94 percent of three different lender groups.

"We're going to continue to work with our lenders," Mockett said.

Mockett, who won't be joining the combined company, said he hasn't focused on what he might do next.

"Running Dex One is a full-time occupation -- more than a full-time occupation," he said.

The combined company will be based in Dallas.