One more key piece of Sprint's purchase of iPCS Inc. is in place.

The telecom company announced Friday that it had completed the tender offer for all the outstanding stock of iPCS, a Sprint affiliae. The $24 a share offer expired late Wednesday.

Sprint said it will be able to acquire the remaining shares of iPCS by Dec. 7 without a vote of the affiliate’s shareholders. The total deal is worth $426 million.

iPCS, which sells Sprint-branded services in the Midwest, will become a subsidiary of the Overland Park-based company.

iPCS has 700,000 PCS wireless customers and 270,000 wholesale customers. They will become direct customers of Sprint.

The merger also settles legal disputes between the companies that dealt with differences over sales territories.