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Technology Stocks : Vodafone-Airtouch (NYSE: VOD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2848)	6/5/2000 7:50:00 AM
From: MrGreenJeans	Respond to of 3175

Mannesmann Telecoms Sales More Than Double in First Four Months By Taska Manzaroli Dusseldorf, Germany, June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Mannesmann AG, the German phone company bought by Vodafone AirTouch Plc in April for $166 billion, said telecommunications sales more than doubled in the first four months, boosted by its domestic mobile unit. Sales rose 142 percent to 4.4 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in the four months, Klaus Esser, the retiring chief executive, told investors at the company's shareholder meeting. The D2 German mobile business posted a 43 percent increase in sales. ``Each growth figure shows Mannesmann Telecommunications is growing more dynamically than ever before,'' Esser said. The inclusion of Italian units Omnitel and Infostrada and German fixed- network operator Otelo in its accounts boosted sales. Mannesmann D2 has won more than 600,000 customers per month this year, giving it more than 13 million subscribers. Omnitel, the Italian mobile phone business, now has 11.5 million clients. Atecs Mannesmann AG, the car parts and engineering business that is being bought by Siemens AG and Robert Bosch GmbH, posted an 11 percent increase in sales in the first four months. New orders rose 24 percent to 5 billion euros.

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2848)	6/5/2000 8:19:00 AM
From: Jules Shear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Although possible, I just don't see this KPN/FT/Sonera/Orange merger happening. IMO, this is Snook (through his bankers who also have interest in seeing a merger happening) posturing for more independence from FT. Clearly, he's not happy being under the thumbnail of FT bureaucracy but if KPN/Telefonica could'nt make a go of it, who thinks that the Dutch, French, Finns, Brits, Americans, and Japanese can all make a go of it under a united front. IMO, KPN has too many influential shareholders (Do-Co-Mo, Dutch govt, Qwest, Bell South) to take this speculation seriously. I think KPN views themselves as acquiror vs acquiree. I could see a potential bidding war for Sonera happening though. They have become a very desirable independent company with their properties in various countries and 3G/m-commerce software developments. While a bidding war would be nice for already rewarded SNRA shareholders-a huge premium could hurt the acquiror in the short-run. Sonera already has a >20 something EBIDTA multiple-a higher valuation than VOD. And don't think that VOD is going to sit back and watch Sonera just go to a potential competitor-they are an important piece to the VOD puzzle. If VOD were to make a play for SNRA as rumored in other publications, it would definitely shed some light on VOD's long-term US intentions as well given that SNRA seems to be very interested in stepping-up in the US. Also, could be interesting to see what Bell South does. Who knows-maybe they would be in favor of such a deal (I believe they have KPN veto power) and could use Sonera merger as a "back door" consolidator for US GSM properties given their recent activity with SBC wireless? Just speculation-but another angle to be considered Anyway, fun time to watch the action. MGJ-keep us posted.