My guess has been that FNTN wanted/wants to do something similar to the following in/for the financial community...
SDB
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dailynews.yahoo.com
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Tuesday October 5 11:57 AM ET
U.S. Real Estate Firms In High-Speed Telecom Move
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Eight of the largest commercial U.S. real estate companies are teaming up with
venture capital titan Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to offer a range of Internet-based voice and
high-speed data services to their office tenants, the companies said Tuesday.
The new telecommunications company, known as Broadband Office Inc., comes with a built-in client
base in the form of the realtors' tenants, which occupy 10 percent of U.S. commercial office space.
Broadband Office will begin offering local- and long-distance telephone service plus high-speed Internet connections with a
potential reach of 40 percent of all office space owned by real estate investment trusts and 10 percent of the entire commercial
office space market in the United States.
The real estate consortium includes CarrAmerica Realty Corp. (NYSE:CRE - news), Crescent Real Estate Equities Co,
Duke-Weeks Realty Investments Inc., Equity Office Properties Trust (NYSE:EOP - news), Highwoods Properties Inc.
(NYSE:HIW - news), the Hines organization, Mack-Cali Realty Corp. (NYSE:CLI - news) and Spieker Properties Inc .
Broadband said it will begin offering services in 45 days. Its presence will span nearly every major metropolitan area of the
country, including the 30 largest office markets and well over 2,000 office buildings.
The group is in discussions with other real estate owners to expand the number of buildings served, it said in a statement. The
company is based in Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Bay area.
Kleiner Perkins has been a founding investor in such companies as America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news) Amazon.com
Inc., Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news) and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news) and is known for
targeting new business markets with an eye toward creating dominant companies.
Kleiner Perkins General Partner Kevin Compton said: ''The goal of this company is nothing less than to create the leading
player in what we believe to be one of the business world's most dynamic industries -- the telecommunications industry.''
''We are currently building what we believe will be the deepest and most talented management team in the industry,'' he said.
Broadband Office's senior executive team includes managers from MCI Worldcom Inc., MCI's UUNET unit, Level 3
Communications Inc., consultant Booz-Allen Hamilton, BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - news) and other companies, he said. |
