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Technology Stocks : Global Crossing - GX (formerly GBLX) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don Edgerton who wrote (1781)	9/8/1999 5:02:00 AM
From: Don Edgerton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15615

Here is the story: Wednesday September 8, 4:06 am Eastern Time Global Crossing deal due on $1.3 bln Asian network By Robin Sidel NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Fiber optic cable company Global Crossing Ltd (Nasdaq:GBLX - news) is forming a joint venture with Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and Japanese Internet firm Softbank Corp to build a $1.28 billion land and undersea telecommunication in Asia, according to sources familiar with the situation. The deal, which is expected to be announced later Wednesday, seeks to take advantage of an anticipated explosion in Internet use across Asia, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. The 17,700-kilometre network, to be named East Asia Crossing, will link Japan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, connecting them to Global Crossing's fibre optic network that serves North America, Europe and South America. Global Crossing will manage and operate the network which will offer access to high-tech telecommunications services such as electronic commerce. The venture calls for the three companies to form a new entity called Asia Global Crossing, which will eventually be taken public. Bermuda-based Global Crossing will initially own 93 percent of the new company, with Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Softbank each owning 3.5 percent, the sources said. Those ownership stakes will increase for Microsoft and Softbank to a maximum 19 percent each if the market value of the new venture reaches $7.5 billion. Global Crossing and Microsoft declined to comment. A New York-based spokesman for Softbank could not be reached for comment. As part of the deal, Softbank and Microsoft will each contribute $175 million in cash to Asia Global Crossing, the sources said. They also will commit a total of at least $200 million in Global Crossing network capacity purchases over a three-year period, primarily on Global Crossing's U.S.-Japan system. The new venture will be led by Global Crossing vice chairman Jack Scanlon. Global Crossing also will control a majority of seats on the board of Asia Global Crossing. The East Asia Crossing project is expected to have capital costs of $1.28 billion over the next two years. It will be financed by the new entity. Two-year-old Global Crossing recently agreed to buy number five U.S. long-distance telephone company Frontier Corp. (NYSE:FRO - news) for about $9 billion in stock. Softbank has branched out from its original business of computer software publishing and taken stakes in more than 100 Internet-related firms across the globe, including U.S. Internet media company Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news).