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To: Eric L who wrote (3871)	12/2/1999 9:10:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

WRAP: NTT DoCoMo Extends NTT Grp Reach In Hutchison Deal By IAN MESSER and CATHY CHAN TOKYO -- Japan's NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc.,(J.NTX or 9437), commonly known as NTT DoCoMo, said Thursday it will acquire a 19% stake in Hutchison Telephone Co., giving it a firm foothold in Hong Kong's mobile communications market. The US$410 million acquisition will also put NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison Telephone in a prime position to tap China's growing telecommunications market, analysts said. "Hutchison is a good partner to DoCoMo with regards to Hong Kong and China," said Alan Hutcheson, research director of Pacific Challenge Securities Ltd. Hutchison Telephone is a unit of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. (H.HUW). As a result of the deal, Hutchison Whampoa's controlling interest in the unit will fall to 55.9% from 70% and the share held by Motorola Inc. (MOT) will shrink to 25.1% from 30%. The transaction values Hutchison Telephone at US$2.6 billion, its parent said. Under the deal, Hutchison will raise the total number of shares of unlisted Hutchison Telephone to about 119,500 from 100,000 through a new share issue. NTT DoCoMo's 19% stake will come from Hutchison Whampoa. Motorola's stake is diluted by the new share issue. By gaining entry into Hong Kong and China via the Hutchison deal, NTT DoCoMo is furthering the NTT group's ambitions to become the dominant telecom player in Asia. Earlier this year, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (NTT or 9432) increased its interests in the mobile phone market in the Philipines. In addition, NTT DoCoMo and NTT Communications Corp. are currently in negotiations with the Malaysian government to acquire a stake in Telekom Malaysia Bhd. (P.TEL), the country's biggest telecom concern. Offers NTT DoCoMo Good Entry Into HK, China Analysts say that technological advances are behind the NTT Group's push to expand its geographical reach. "Unlike earlier mobile phone formats, NTT DoCoMo's wide-band CDMA (code division multiple access) protocol is set to become a global standard," says Atsuo Takahashi, an analyst at Daiwa Securities SG Capital Markets. Takahashi doesn't expect the NTT group's expansion into Asia to end with Thursday's deal. Rumors that a deal between NTT DoCoMo and Hutchison was in the offing first surfaced Monday in the local Hong Kong press. Since then, details of the deal have been trickling out steadily. Thursday's announcement came after stock trading in Tokyo and Hong Kong had ended, but anticipation of the deal helped boost Hutchison Whampoa shares by HK$3.50, or 3.6%, to HK$101.50. NTT DoCoMo shares ended Thursday's session Y30,000, or 0.9%, lower at Y3.19 million, the third straight day of falls. The issue tumbled Y670,000, or 17%, over the two previous trading sessions. Analysts say the recent slump in NTT DoCoMo's share price is unrelated to rumors over the Hutchison deal. Instead, they say, investors are looking to take profits in Japanese telecom stocks that have enjoyed a remarkable bull run since the start of the year. Analyst Kate Lye at Warburg Dillon Read Japan said the attraction of investing in Hutchison is that it "offers NTT DoCoMo a good entry into Hong Kong and China." At a press conference in Tokyo, a senior NTT DoCoMo executive was careful to downplay the group's ambitions in China. However, he noted that China is a fast-growing telecom market where NTT DoCoMo is looking for new business opportunites. Warburg's Lye said the motive for Hutchison is less clear, adding that the Hong Kong company probably wants access to NTT DoCoMo's technological expertise in next-generation mobile phone technology. NTT DoCoMo is aiming to become the first company in the world to launch third-generation mobile phone services in spring 2001. Speculation has been growing over NTT DoCoMo's acquisitive intentions in Asia since company president Kenji Tachikawa revealed at a press conference last month that NTT DoCoMo had a budget of Y150 billion set aside for overseas investments for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2000. Last month, NTT DoCoMo and NTT Communications, a wholly owned unit of NTT, said they signed a memorandum of understanding with Khazana Bhd., the investment arm of the Malaysian government regarding a possible investment in Telekom Malaysia. No details have yet emerged about this deal.

To: Eric L who wrote (3871)	12/2/1999 10:00:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 13582

ERICSSON MAKES CDMA INFRASTRUCTURE STRIDES; BUT HANDSETS ON HOLD WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 01, 1999 11:47 PM - Phillips Business Information Dec. 01, 1999 (WIRELESS TODAY, Vol. 3, No. 231 via COMTEX) -- SAN FRANCISCO - Ericsson [ERICY] attended its first CDMA Americas Congress since its technology agreement with Qualcomm [QCOM] and the purchase of Qualcomm's infrastructure division jettisoned the vendor into the CDMA market this spring. Ericsson execs are anxious to show the company has hit the ground running concerning CDMA. At the show in San Francisco yesterday (11/30), Ericsson announced delivery of the first commercial CDMA network that uses the standard Interoperability Specification (IOS) developed by the CDMA Development Group. In fact, Ericsson execs were proud to report that U S West's [USW] Salt Lake City network, launched last month, uses Ericsson- branded compact base stations and base station controllers. The IOS technology provides an open interface between the base station subsystems and U S West's backbone network. Jan-Anders Dalenstam, Ericsson's senior vice president of Business Development and Strategic Marketing for CDMA Systems, cited deals with Mexican carrier Pegaso and with Alcatel [ALA] in Chile. Dalenstam said Ericsson is focusing on the infrastructure market before offering CDMA handsets because the company believes handsets are "not as critical when it comes to getting market share." Given the much shorter life cycle for handsets compared to infrastructure products, handset market share tends to fluctuate among vendors as new features are introduced, he said. Thus, Ericsson can afford to enter the handset game later - but it needs to get into the infrastructure market right away to avoid missing out on long-term contracts. Ericsson clearly will not have CDMA handsets on the shelves in time for the fourth quarter buying surge. However, Dalenstam said the company will introduce CDMA handsets in mid-2000.