NTT DoCoMo May Buy U.K.'s Orange for 35 Bln Pounds, Paper Says
By Ali Scott
London, Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- NTT Mobile Communications
Network Inc., the world's biggest mobile phone company by market
capitalization, may make a 35 billion pound ($55 billion) offer
for Orange Plc, the U.K. mobile phone company owned by German
phone company Mannesmann AG, the Sunday Business newspaper
reported, citing no sources. NTT DoCoMo, as the company is better
known, has in the past said it wants to expand outside Asia, and
may be eager to form international alliances after the Vodafone
Airtouch Plc and Mannesmann merger. Bankers say that NTT DoCoMo
has proposed several options for its Orange bid, including
assuming a majority shareholding or creating a new joint venture,
the newspaper reported.
NTT DoCoMo in December paid $410 million to Hutchison
Whampoa Ltd. for 19 percent of Hong Kong's largest mobile phone
company; last month it announced plans to offer its i-mode mobile
Internet access service in Hong Kong, a first step in the
company's plan to expand the service in Asia |
