12/22/1999 Conference Call - Selected Bytes - China.
1999 Conference Call 12/22/1999 75 min.
Investor Conference Call Regarding The Sale Of Its Phone Business
Section 3: Question and Answer Session (68 min.)
Jeffrey Schlesinger with Warburg, Dillon, Read.
Timemark: 32:45
JS:: And, then China?
IJ: China. The handling of the negotiations was transferred from the MII, Ministry of Information & Industry, to Unicom, plus a group of potential manufacturers. And, meetings have proceeded. They've broken now for the holidays but will pick up immediately after the holidays. Thus far I'd say there's progress. There's always the issue in China that there's a desire to trade market for technology. That's, of course, of interest as long as there's a way to make profits on that market. And so, those discussions will continue. I think that again, they are more positive over the last month or two, certainly since the decision on the WTO, than they had been for the few months earlier than that, and I'm still optimistic that we will reach an agreement.
JS:: Is that a positive step that they've transferred it from the government to Unicom and to manufacturers and can you give us a time frame when you think you might see an agreement?
IJ: I view it as a positive step. I don't think the ministry is pulled out of that discussion and so they will watch and provide guidance but the fact that there are both manufacturers and a company that wishes to launch a large CDMA network as early as possible, I think does give an additional sense of urgency to concluding negotiations. And so, I think there's an opportunity to try to finish within the month...next month. If we miss on that it could stretch another few months. Right now, there's been a good exchange of information, an understanding of the structure of these agreements, our points of view, their points of view. We are now digesting and getting ready to return. |
