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At Viso to Invest $114 Mln in Five Internet Firms
By Lori Brumat at Bloomberg News
07 October 1999
At Viso, a French online investment fund venture owned by Softbank Corp. and Vivendi SA will invest as much as $114 million in the European units of five U.S. Internet companies over the next year and a half.
Vivendi, the world's biggest water company, and Softbank, one of the top financiers of Internet businesses, will buy 50 percent stakes in the European subsidiaries of BUY.COM, E-LOAN Inc., Interliant Inc., MessageMedia Inc. and Vstream.
"We want At Viso to be the best place to work with and to work in if you want to expand your Internet business in Europe," said Pierre Liautaud, At Viso chief executive, adding that the venture will spend $71 million initially, and invest the rest over the next 18 months.
Tokyo-based Softbank and Vivendi will also create a $100 million wireless Internet investment fund, said Philippe Germond, Vivendi senior executive vice president and managing director of Cegetel SA, France's second-biggest phone company and a unit of Vivendi.
"This fund will invest in companies that do mobile portals such as Phone.com," Germond said. Phone.com Inc. is a U.S. maker of software that connects wireless phones to the Internet which already has an association with Cegetel.
Vivendi will contribute $40 million to the fund, while Softbank will add another $20 million. The remaining $40 million will be reserved for a strategic partner yet to be named and which could be Mannesmann AG, Germond added.
Vivendi wants to have a large portfolio of such companies and this fund will be based in Paris but invest all over world, Germond added.
For its part, Softbank is trying to duplicate its success in investing in Internet companies such as Yahoo! Inc., GeoCities, and E*Trade Group Inc. to Japan.
Vivendi shares closed down 0.9 euro, or 1.31%, at 67.95 euros ($72.86) in Paris. Softbank closed up 1,550 yen, or 3.66%, at 43,850 ($407.17) in Tokyo trading.
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