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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (26908)	4/13/1999 5:18:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

Could be good for the Q> ay Start Merger Negotiations By Junko Fujita at Bloomberg News 13 April 1999 DDI Corp., Japan's third largest phone company, and Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate IDO Corp. may merge, said IDO President Takeo Tsukada. "Both sides are considering preparations for merger negotiations, but it's too early to sit at the table," Tsukada said. "We need to examine each other carefully before we begin negotiations." DDI shares rose 3.42% on the comment, closing at a 52-week high of 605,000 yen, up 20,000 yen. IDO is privately held. A merger between DDI, which provides domestic and international phone services, and IDO, a cellular phone service operator, would help both companies compete against NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., Japan's third-largest company. NTT DoCoMo controls 58% of Japan's cellular phone market with 41.5 million users. DDI and IDO together control 21%. Tsukada's remark came a day before DDI and IDO will launch a new cellular phone technology, cdmaOne, nationwide. CdmaOne, or code division multiple access, technology was developed by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. IDO will introduce the system in Tokyo and other parts of central Japan. DDI started service with cdmaOne in July in the western and southern parts of Japan. Until now NTT DoCoMo was the only cellular phone company to own a nationwide network. Other cellular phone companies, including the Tu-ka Cellular group and the Digital Phone group, connected each others' networks. With cdmaOne, which is known for its high sound quality and data transmission capability, DDI and IDO hope to reduce DoCoMo's market share below 50%, said Tsukada. DDI President Akira Hioki said it is aiming for 2.54 million users and IDO said it's aiming for 1 million users of the new digital cellular phone system by March 31, 2000, the end of the current business year. DDI gained 541,000 cdmaOne users in the year ended March. Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.