Swisscom pays Vodafone $3.5 bln for mobile stake
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Swisscom AG  will repurchase a 25 percent stake in Swisscom Mobile from Britain's Vodafone Group Plc for 4.25 billion Swiss francs ($3.5 billion) in a long-awaited deal to fortify its home market position.
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(InfoWorld) - Vodafone Group had almost 200 million customers by Dec. 31, but continues to face challenges in the competitive and saturated European market. The operator's European business stagnated, with fourth-quarter revenue growing just 0.9 percent year on year, excluding the effect of acquisitions. Worldwide, its growth excluding acquisitions totalled 6.1 percent. The company accounts for revenue from partly-owned subsidiaries in proportion to its holding. Vodafone said that despite low growth in Europe, some of its new calling plans, such as one that offers users a lower price for calls made within their home area and others that include fixed-line broadband Internet access, are attracting new customers. Price competition, however, is offsetting that growth. Revenue from Vodafone's operations outside Europe, excluding acquisitions, grew 14.4 percent compared to a year earlier. Egypt, Romania, South Africa, and Turkey showed particularly strong growth during the period, Vodafone said. The operator offered no further insight into itsÂ negotiations to buyÂ a controlling interest in Indian operator Hutchison Essar. The board is continuing to investigate the possibility and will only agree to a deal that meets Vodafone's financial criteria, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said during a conference call to discuss the results. U.S. operator Verizon Wireless, in which Vodafone owns a stake, also did well during the quarter, with Vodafone's share of the business acquiring one million new customers. Vodafone is still pleased with its stake in Verizon Wireless, although the company uses a different wireless technology to that used by Vodafone's holdings elsewhere in the world. "There is no concept of our selling our interest there," Sarin said. While rumors have surfaced regularly over the past few years that Verizon Wireless might be considering a major technology change, that's still doubtful, Sarin said. Even Apple'sÂ much anticipated iPhone, which operates on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), the technology that competes with Verizon's CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network, is unlikely to encourage Verizon to make a change, Sarin said. The migration to fourth-generation networks, which operators will begin to make in the next few years, will probably cement Verizon's choice. "That's the time Verizon Wireless will think about what next generation of technology that they can deploy and of course they'll try to deploy a technology that is as backward compatible as they can," he said. Data services are also paying off for Vodafone. Non-voice average revenue per user was up 62 percent for the quarter compared to the year earlier. Vodafone has attracted 50 percent of its total customers to sign up for Passport, a plan that offers reduced rates on roaming. The European Commission is proposing a regulation that would require operators to reduce their roaming rates. Vodafone doesn't expect the commission to make a final decision until this summer, said Sarin.
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Sprint Corp. FON.N on Wednesday  agreed to buy mobile telephone company Nextel Communications  Inc. NXTL.O in a deal worth $35.17 billion to gain more  business customers and more airwaves to transmit calls.
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BONN - The German state announced plans Monday to reduce its stake in telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom by some 7 percent in a transaction which could generate revenue amounting to nearly EUR 4.5 billion.
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Swisscom offered 3.74 billion euros, or $4.93 billion to acquire FastWeb, one of the largest fixed-line phone companies in Italy.
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BASEL, Switzerland -- Switzerland&#39;s struggling national airline Friday announced it had agreed to a 325 million Swiss franc ($258 million) loan from an international banking syndicate.
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Greece's third largest mobile phone company is being sold for 3.4bn euros.
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Switzerland's struggling national airline Friday announced it had agreed to a 325 million Swiss franc (&#36;258 million) loan from an international banking syndicate.
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NEW YORK - Sprint Corp. said on Tuesday it would spend $US3 billion ($NZ4.2 billion) over the next three years to upgrade its mobile network including the development of high-speed Internet services.
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LONDON - US cellular operators Sprint and Nextel have confirmed they are planning a $35 billion merger to create the third largest mobile carrier with almost 40m subscribers, behind Cingular, the market leader, and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture
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BRITISH Telecom today announced the sale of its stake in one of the worldâs largest satellite companies for Â£363 million. The telecoms giant said it was offloading its 15.8 per cent holding in Paris-based
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BT Group Plc, the UK&#39;s largest phone operator, agreed to sell its stake in Eutelsat SA for 363 million pounds ($685 million) in cash, marking the company&#39;s exit from the satellite operating business.
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VODAFONE shares fell nearly 3 per cent yesterday on fears that the mobile phone group could come under pressure from its US partner to provide $25 billion (Â£13 billion) to help to finance a bid for Sprint.
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Singapore Telecommunications' Australian unit Optus and Vodafone announced an agreement on rolling out a shared third-generation (3G) mobile phone network in Australia.
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British mobile services operator Vodafone Group will acquire a majority stake in Hutchison Essar, winning aÂ heated bid for controlÂ of the Indian mobile services operator.
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Telekom Austria AG plans to buy Bulgaria&#39;s largest wireless company, MobilTel EAD, for 1.15 billion euros ($1.5 billion), adding 3 million subscribers in a nation where less than half the population has a cellular phone.
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Switzerlandâs troubled national airline says it has secured an agreement in principle with an international banking syndicate for a SFr325 million ($258 million) credit facility.