DoCoMo plannning a bid for Orange (weekend news):
NTT DoCoMo plotting a bid for U.K.'s Orange
By Gareth Vaughan, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 9:47 AM ET Feb 6, 2000 NewsWatch
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- NTT DoCoMo, the giant Japanese cellular phone operator, is mulling a $35 billion bid for Orange, the U.K.'s No. 3 -- and fastest growing -- mobile phone operator.
Orange, which was bought by Germany's Mannesmann last October for $33 billion, is set to be spun off or sold in the wake of Vodafone AirTouch PLC's (VOD: news, msgs) takeover of Mannesmann.
Investment bankers told Britain's Sunday Business newspaper that NTT DoCoMo (NMCNY: news, msgs) has drawn up proposals that could lead to another radical redrawing of the global telecom map.
The intervention of DoCoMo in the European market would be a logical step in that the company, which is Japan's biggest by market capitalization at some $191.10 billion -- has stated that it wants to expand outside its home market. DoCoMo, the world's No. 2 cellular phone operator after Vodafone with some 25 million customers, plans a U.S. listing and is also considering listing on the London Stock Exchange. |
