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

To: JDN who wrote (40164)	9/26/2000 6:56:24 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 41369

AOL eyes Japan alliance NTT DoCoMo is Japan's largest mobile company America Online is set to announce a strategic alliance with Japan's largest mobile telecoms company, NTT DoCoMo, reports said. NTT DoCoMo is expected to pay $100m for a stake in AOL Japan, a report in the Financial Times said. AOL, one of the world's leading internet service providers, has had difficulty establishing its presence in the Japanese market. Similarly, linking up with AOL will help DoCoMo establish a US presence. The deal could be announced as early as Wednesday, the report said. Clear logic DoCoMo is expected to offer AOL the technology used in its "i-mode" internet access service, while the DoCoMo service will benefit from the AOL content. "The significance [for DoCoMo] is that they get a link up with the largest fixed line internet subscriber company," Kirk Boodry, telecoms analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson said. "For DoCoMo, this kind of agreement makes them more attractive for any US carrier that they would want to form a strategic agreement with." AOL's share of AOL Japan is expected to fall to about 39%, effectively giving DoCoMo a controlling stake in the company, a report in the Asian Wall Street Journal said. "NTT DoCoMo is more or less taking the company (AOL Japan) over," internet analyst Ortwin Gierhake of WestLB Securities said. DoCoMo's I-Mode service has twelve million subscribers, compared with AOL's 440,000 subscribers. Globally, AOL has 24 million subscribers. Both companies have so far declined to comment on the deal. Last week, DoCoMo's president Keiji Tachikawa said the company was "negotiating with good partners" to expand DoCoMo's mobile services. DoCoMo plans to launch the world's first commercial next-generation services for mobile phones in Japan next year. Search BBC News Online Advanced search options BBC ONE TV NEWS WORLD NEWS SUMMARY PROGRAMMES GUIDE BBC NEWS 24 BULLETIN See also: 09 May 00 \| Business NTT, KPN in mobile deal 24 May 00 \| Business Mobile internet boosts NTT 26 Jan 00 \| Business The AOL - Time Warner merger Internet links: NTT DoCoMo America Online The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Other top Business stories: Germany to cut Telekom stake Surfers shun Wap phones AOL eyes Japan alliance UK dot.coms 'lag behind' Prague protesters confront police Blair losing business backing Security tight for Opec summit Brown targets cash at poorer pensioners Links to top Business stories are at the foot of the page.