tb2, Sorry that I did not respond sooner. Snapshot of what has happened? Where do I begin? How much time do you have?
You really had to be there to understand all the uproar and excitement. All the news speculation, rumors, and innuendos we were subjected to and the dragging oooooout of the final days!
In a "coconut"shell, Richard Li, President of PCCLF, pulled a "Pfizer" and stole HKT away from Singapore Tel!
SingTel announced they were buying HKT from C&W. Richard Li, President of PCCLF, announced he was going to make C&W an offer for HKT. Over the following couple of weeks, over and over, news releases said SingTel says they were still in the deal, and C&W says the same, C&S has had no contact or offer from Li...Pcclf is a company with a plan, but no business and with stock that is considered of questionable cash value to C&W for purchase of HKT. There were lots of rumors of people and companies joining in, or new bidders... but no substantive news.
HKT(8) went up and Pcclf(1186) went down. Li requested Hong Kong Stock Exchange halt trading in pcclf. At least 2 or more days went by with no news, only rumor and speculation.
Then on Thursday, I think, Li announced he would be making an announcement on Monday. Unidentified Sources said the announcement had nothing to do with HKT, it was about a deal another company.
On Saturday C&W said they would have an announcement in 48 hours about pcclf's offer.
Within hours Rupert Murdock's News Corp said they were investing US$1 Billion in SingTel and the news media theorized it was to help SingTel buy HKT. (that news was a real bummer, to me)
That news was followed shortly by Li announcing he was cancelling Monday's announcement. (a worse bummer)
C&W's 48-hours came and went -- no announcement. Even CNBC said it was up and they were still looking for the announcement. All day we saw news items quoting "sources" (I hate those people!) saying pcclf had won, but we still had no announcement or credible collaboration.
Finally, about 5 hours after the 48-hours had expired, the news came: C&W said deal with <1186.hk> was signed with LI. It was a great theatrical ending to a suspense-ridden couple of weeks.
Last night, I received an email and would like to quote the author, who says it far better than I ever could:
"What a classic battle this was between PCCLF and Singtel. Li's reputation as an awesome deal maker is well deserved. It will be interesting to see the reactions from Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston tomorrow. I would imagine they will have notes out on First Call ... Overnight we have gone from owning a potential Internet giant to an instant telecommunications giant with an improved chance of becoming an Internet giant. Of course, now we will have over 20 billion shares outstanding."
Merry |
