IOWA TELECOM SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE WINDSTREAM MERGER

Iowa Telecom announced that its shareholders voted to approve a previously-announced merger with Little Rock-based Windstream Corp.

Nearly 98% of shareholders voted in favor of adoption of the merger agreement.

The Windstream-Iowa Telecom merger was announced in November 2009. Under the merger agreement, each outstanding share of Iowa Telecom common stock will be converted into the right to receive $7.90 in cash and 0.804 shares of common stock of Windstream.

The deal must still clear several regulatory hurdles, but is expected to close in mid-2010.