Looks like more competition for Mot, Nok and Ericy with no profit.
Matsushita eyes European 3G
By Alexandra Harney in Tokyo
Published: October 3 2000 17:41GMT | Last Updated: October 3 2000 20:52GMT
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the Japanese consumer electronics group, is negotiating with European mobile telecommunications carriers about an alliance on third-generation cellular phones.
The group refused to identify potential partners or disclose details about the structure of the deal. But Kunio Nakamura, Matsushita's new president, said the talks were part of his plan to triple the company's global market share in mobile phones to 15 per cent by 2003.
"We have to expand our alliances [in mobile technology]," Mr Nakamura told the Financial Times on Tuesday. "We have to take a more proposal-oriented approach," he added, referring to the company's intention to initiate discussions rather than wait for an offer.
Hitoshi Kuriyama, electronics analyst at Merrill Lynch, said the most likely partner would be Dutch telecoms company KPN, in which NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese mobile carrier closely aligned with Matsushita, acquired a 15 per cent stake in May.
Mr Kuriyama said such a deal, if completed, would be the first of its kind between a Japanese electronics group and a foreign telecoms carrier.
It would give Matsushita Communication Industrial, the group's mobile arm, access to technological standards - such as operating systems used in mobile phones sold in Europe - ahead of other companies. While Matsushita is Japan's largest mobile phone maker, with a 30 per cent market share, the company has lagged behind Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson in Europe and the US.
Along with other Japanese electronics manufacturers that specialise in small, internet-enabled mobile phones used for DoCoMo's i-mode service, Matsushita is betting that the transition to third-generation mobile phones will give it an opportunity to challenge this triumvirate for the first time. Last month, the group secured its first partner in the European cellular phone industry when it agreed to test its phones' compatibility with network infrastructure made by Ericsson, the Swedish mobile telecoms equipment group.
Mobile phones are particularly important to Matsushita, which uses the Panasonic brand name, because of the decline in sales and profitability in its main electronics business.
Operating profit in the consumer products division, which includes everything from dishwashers to DVD players, fell 63 per cent to Y34bn ($312.5m) in the year that ended in March.
However, analysts said that beating European mobile handset makers on their own turf would be difficult, and making profits even more so.
"If you ask 'is it really a profitable business?', then probably the answer would be no," said Ikuo Matsuhashi, analyst at Goldman Sachs.
news.ft.com |
