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Strategies & Market Trends : JAPAN-Nikkei-Time to go back up? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Angelo Ferraro who wrote (1798)	3/22/1999 12:40:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3902

March 22, 1999 AT&T, British Telecom Are in Talks To Buy 30% Stake in Japan Telecom By GAUTAM NAIK, JATHON SAPSFORD and REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL this is the important paragraph to me: "As in other industries in Japan, phone deregulation is slowly bringing down the barriers to competition and unleashing huge demand for telecom services." ......that is what we want, tax cuts and deregulation!!!! AT&T Corp. and British Telecommunications PLC are negotiating to buy a joint 30% stake in Japan Telecom Co. for roughly $1 billion, according to people close to the companies. The proposed transaction, the latest in a wave of foreign companies moving into Japan, would give BT a stake of 20%; AT&T would get 10%. The deal hasn't been finalized, and discussions could still break down, said people familiar with the plans. AT&T and BT declined to comment. Japan Telecom officials, after word of the potential deal surfaced Friday in Japan, issued a terse statement: "At present nothing has been decided." If the Anglo-American team can clinch the deal, the two Western companies could become a formidable presence in Japan's fast-growing, $110-billion-a-year telecommunications market. Foreign carriers have been trying for years to enter Japan's telephone market, where deregulation has moved more slowly than in the U.S. or Europe. Getting a Foot in the Door Even with a small stake in Japan Telecom, AT&T and BT could tap into its network and influence decisions about rates and new services such as high-speed Internet access. It would also represent the first move by the new AT&T-BT venture, expected to be formed this summer. With annual revenue of $11 billion, the venture merges the overseas assets of both carriers to provide phone and data services to multinational customers world-wide. Some analysts have questioned whether the AT&T-BT venture can move fast enough to match rivals' efforts to expand overseas. In Japan, MCI WorldCom Inc. is tearing up the streets and trying to build its own network. And BT's competitor, Cable & Wireless PLC, already owns 18% of Japan's International Digital Communications and wants to buy a controlling interest. Still, AT&T and BT have high hopes for their venture. "We are approaching the end of these prenuptials," said AT&T President John Zeglis, referring to the wait for approval of the venture. "You're only going to have two kinds of companies in the future: those companies that go global and those companies that go bankrupt." As in other industries in Japan, phone deregulation is slowly bringing down the barriers to competition and unleashing huge demand for telecom services. Since 1984, a venture between AT&T and 25 other companies, called JENS, has sold long-distance, international and Internet services. BT has been in Japan since 1985 and owns 70% of BT Communications Services, which offers data services to multinational companies. BT also recently won licenses to provide high-speed data, Internet and entertainment services in several Japanese cities.