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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: virtualinvestor who wrote (40156)	9/24/2000 9:44:42 PM
From: Nick	Respond to of 41369

Sunday September 24, 9:46 pm Eastern Time NTT DoCoMo to buy 43 pct stake in AOL Japan--WSJ TOKYO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc , Japan's leading mobile phone carrier will take a 43 percent stake in America Online's Japan unit through a $120 million investment, the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The newspaper, citing sources close to deal, said that U.S. Internet giant AOL (NYSE:AOL - news) will pour an additional $100 million into its Japan unit and appoint a chief operating officer. Over the next two years AOL and DoCoMo will invest up to an additional $200 million in AOL Japan, it said. NTT DoCoMo declined to comment on the report. Officials of AOL Japan could not be reached. Analysts say an alliance with AOL would help DoCoMo's drive to capture a wide chunk of the world's next-generation cell phone market, while cementing AOL's leadership position in Internet access. DoCoMo's investment and non-cash contributions will give it a 43.3 percent stage in AOL Japan, the newspaper said. AOL will reduce its share from the current 50 percent to 39.3 percent, it said. Trading house Mitsui & Co and publisher Nihon Keizai Shimbun now hold 40 percent and 10 percent respectively of AOL Japan. They will hold the remaining 17.4 percent under the new agreement. The accord includes a separate agreement under which AOL and DoCoMo plan to jointly develop mobile Internet services in markets outside Japan, it said. Japan's Sankei Shimbun said on Friday that DoCoMo and America Online would announce an alliance to offer Net-based services to cell phone users in a deal that would take DoCoMo's cutting edge ``i-mode'' technology to the U.S. market for the first time. A separate report said DoCoMo may bid for the cell phone business of Australia's second-largest telecoms firm, Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd (Australia:CWO.AX - news). Entry into the United States, the world's largest telecoms market, is seen as key to DoCoMo's ambitions. Although the alliance with AOL is not expected to be a huge contributor to DoCoMo's earnings, the access to AOL content makes the Japanese giant much more attractive to potential U.S. cell phone partners. DoCoMo's shares were up 1.63 percent at 3.12 million yen in mid-morning trade in Tokyo.