Net2Phone: The medium that's making friends
cbs.marketwatch.com
NEW YORK -- AT&T and several partners on Friday moved to acquire a 32 percent stake in Net2Phone in a $1.4 billion deal that also paves the way for Ma Bell to eventually gain control of the top Internet telephone company. AT&T (T: news, msgs), joined by Liberty Media and British Telecommunications (BTY: news, msgs), gets a sought-after foothold in a growing and potentially lucrative market. Net2Phone (NTOP: news, msgs), a spinoff of IDT Corp. (IDTC: news, msgs), gets the stamp of approval by a revered American institution whose interest in the company could sway more customers to give Web-based phone service a try. Separately, Yahoo (YHOO: news, msgs) paid $150 million for a 5 percent Net2Phone stake. Web-based phone services are cheaper to operate and offer an array of new features. At the same time, the traditional long-distance business has been undercut by intense competition, eroding revenue and profit margins. Existing Net phone companies are likely to become buyout targets, and shares of IBasis (IBAS: news, msgs), Deltathree.com (DDDC: news, msgs) and ITXC (ITXC: news, msgs) also got a lift on the Net2Phone news.
Well it would seem that some big names in this business believe Internet Telephony has a bright future. Will there be a sustained move higher for the stocks in the group?
bullsector.com
Any opinions out there?
RTS |
