DoCoMo to Bid $52 Bln for VoiceStream, Journal Says
--From AOL. Now this could get interesting!-- Cooters
Bellevue, Washington, July 14 (Bloomberg) -- NTT DoCoMo Inc., the mobile phone unit of Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., may offer as much as $52 billion for VoiceStream Wireless Corp., a U.S. mobile telephone company, the Wall Street Journal interactive edition reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
DoCoMo, looking to head off a Deutsche Telekom AG bid of $180 a share, may offer as much as $200 a share, the paper said. Alternatively, DoCoMo may team with Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd., which holds 17 percent of VoiceStream, to take a 49 percent stake in the company, the paper said. NTT DoCoMo told Bloomberg News it's exploring partnerships with several companies and declined to comment further. Hutchison declined to comment.
Telecommunications companies are teaming up to invest in new mobile phone permits and building networks. NTT DoCoMo, which this week agreed to join forces with Royal KPN NV and Hutchison to increase its access to European cell phone users, is looking to promote its technology for high-speed Internet access.
In March, Hutchison's Managing Director Canning Fok said Hutchison had already introduced NTT DoCoMo officials to the senior management of VoiceStream.
DoCoMo rose 3.6 percent to 3.16 million yen.
Expansion
DoCoMo this week agreed to join forces with Royal KPN and Hutchison in four European countries to win licenses for faster Internet access through mobile phones and to share the cost of expansion.
The alliance starts in the U.K., where a unit of Hutchison, Hong Kong's largest conglomerate, already owns a license. DoCoMo and KPN, the biggest Dutch phone company, will spend 2.1 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) to buy 35 percent of the unit. The companies will also link up to bid for license sales in France, Germany and Belgium.
DoCoMo was first linked with Bellevue, Washington-based wireless firm VoiceStream in May, when the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported the Japanese mobile phone company was in talks to buy as much as 20 percent of the U.S. company for about 500 billion yen ($4.6 billion).
DoCoMo plans to be the first cellular phone company in the world to offer a high speed mobile Internet access when its new service begins in May. The company supports a cellular phone technology standard called wideband code division multiple access.
Technology
DoCoMo has said its primary purpose in forming alliances with foreign carriers is to promote the W-CDMA technology as a global standard. DoCoMo is competing with San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., which is pushing its cdma2000 technology as the global standard for so-called 3G phone services. Analysts expect most U.S. carriers to adopt Qualcomm's standard.
Qualcomm developed code-division multiple access, the digital wireless standard used by carriers such as Sprint Corp.'s PCS Group and Verizon Wireless, the Vodafone AirTouch Plc-Bell Atlantic Corp. venture that is the largest U.S. wireless company.
VoiceStream uses global system for mobile communications, or GSM, the dominant digital wireless standard in Europe and Asia. That means adapting to DoCoMo's new standard for more advanced services would be easier than adapting to a different standard.
NTT DoCoMo has said that while it is looking to form partnerships with several carriers, it does not want to take majority stakes in any alliances. The Japanese provider said its goal is to take minority stakes, assuring itself of a say in management decisions, without taking full control.
(Wall Street Journal Interactive, 7/14) For the Wall Street Journal Interactive enter {WWSJ <GO>}
Jul/14/2000 5:53 ET |
