Re: NTT DoCoMo Carpetbaggers
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>> DOCOMO PROFIT JUMPS ON MOBILE NET SUCCESS
Reuters
14 November 2000
Japan's largest wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc boosted its net profit forecast for this business year to 347 billion yen ($3.23 billion), up 12 percent from its prior estimate, reflecting feverish growth of its "i-mode" mobile Internet access service.
I-mode's success also powered a surge in its group net profit in the half-year to September to 217.5 billion yen, up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations of around 200 billion yen.
Analysts were focusing more intently, however, on revisions to the full-year forecast to gauge the company's expectations for further i-mode growth.
They say the sustainability of subscriber growth and investment costs for third generation, or 3G, high-speed wireless services, able to deliver video and CD-quality sound to cellular handsets, will be key to DoCoMo's profit outlook.
DoCoMo President and Chief Executive Keiji Tachikawa told a news conference: "As for the second half, we expect steady subscriber growth and increasing revenue and profits."
The company forecast that i-mode, which lets users surf the Web on business card-sized screens, would reach 20 million subscribers by the end of the current business year to next March, up from 12.65 million at the end of September.
NTT DoCoMo, eager to be the first wireless carrier to deploy 3G services worldwide, has forged links in Hong Kong and Asia, but has yet to find a North American partner, although it is reportedly in talks with several carriers there.
Tachikawa said the company had invested 60 billion yen on 3G services in the first half of the business year and would spend another 100 billion yen in the second half.
He added the carrier was still seeking alliances with partners overseas but refused to comment on who it might tie up with.
DoCoMo, a subsidiary of former telecoms monopoly Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp and the largest company in Japan by stock market value, was considering various options in the United States, Tachikawa said, hinting it may not tie up with just one carrier.
It is reportedly in talks with AT&T Corp about taking a minority stake in the U.S. group's mobile phone arm, and efforts to break into the United States also involve talks with Cingular, a wireless telephone joint venture between BellSouth Corp and SBC Communications Inc.
DoCoMo's share price closed at 2.84 million yen, before the release of the midterm results. The share price was down a modest 0.7 percent on the day and has fallen nearly 40 percent from its 4.57 million yen February peak. <<
- Eric - |
