Vodafone says won't pay over the top for Hutch Essar
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Vodafone Group Plc  vowed not to pay "over the top" in the multi-billion-pound battle for India's Hutchison Essar on Wednesday, as the British mobile phone giant said it had crossed the 200-million customer mark.
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Business & money: Â·  Payout comes despite claims of price-fixing Â·  Airline cites 'contractual obligations' for move
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British mobile phone giant Vodafone, grappling with intense competition in Europe, has tapped into the booming Indian economy after winning control of Hutchison Essar for 11.1 billion dollars.
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Vodafone Group Plc  has  won the battle for a controlling stake in India's No.4 mobile  operator Hutchison Essar with a bid that values it at around  $19 billion including debt, a source and India's Essar group  said on Sunday.
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Splurges Indian ink Vodafone announced today it had finally netted a 67 per cent controlling interest in Indian operator Hutch Essar for $11.1bn cash.â¦
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The deal for Hutchinson Essar, one of Indiaâs fastest growing telecommunications companies, values the company at around $19 billion.
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(InfoWorld) - Vodafone Group plans to launch several phones for holiday shoppers in Europe, including a high-end, touch-screen rival toÂ Apple's iPhone. The British mobile phone operator has an exclusive agreement to offer theÂ F700 smartphone from Samsung Electronics, said Jens Schulte-Bokum, head of the global terminal division at Vodafone. The F700 is based on proprietary technology developed by Samsung. The phone, which Vodafone plans to customize and co-brand, has been referred to by industry pundits as an "iPhone killer." The F700 has touch-screen capabilities and plays audio and video files. But unlike the iPhone, the device has a pull-down QWERTY keyboard and support for 3G (third-generation) and HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), which has speeds theoretically as high as 7.2Mbps. Schulte-Bokum declined to comment on whether Vodafone has plans to offer the iPhone, whichÂ Apple expects to launch in EuropeÂ in the coming weeks, although he did comment on its lack of 3G capability. "We like the iPhone. We think it's a unique user experience and we applaud Apple for what they're doing in the industry as a new starter," he said. "But we regret that the iPhone, initially, won't support 3G, which we believe is necessary to deliver a compelling music and Internet experience." Of the more than 25 new handsets, including the F700, that Vodafone will launch ahead of the important holiday shopping season, 13 will support HSDPA. All of the planned new handsets will be 3G-enabled. No pricing information was available. Phones will be available beginning later this month, but a schedule of exactly which phones will be released and when was not provided. Vodafone will introduce two handsets using the Windows Mobile operating system: the Vodafone-branded 920, which is manufactured by Taiwan's High Tech Computer (HTC); and the co-branded i620v from Samsung. In addition to Windows Mobile phones, the South Korean manufacturer will also deliver two new handsets based on the Series 60 platform from Nokia. The Vodafone manager also declined to comment on whether Vodafone, which had an exclusive agreement to launch Palm's Treo smartphone in Europe, would offer a new version of the phone, to be announced on Wednesday. "We are still in discussions with Palm to refresh that lineup," Schulte-Bokum said. Palm also declined to comment. Also missing from the pre-holiday product launch are handsets based on the Linux operating system. "We expect to offer Linux-based phones, but not until spring or early summer of 2008," Schulte-Bokum said, adding that the company is a founding member of the LiMo initiative, which aims to push the standardization and adoption of the open-source operating system on mobile phones. In addition to the new handsets, Vodafone also plans to offer MusicStation, the music download service provided by Omnifone Ltd. Initially available only in the U.K., MusicStation will offer customers unlimited music downloads of more than 1 million titles directly to the internal memory or storage cards on their handsets for Â£1.99 ($4.03 ) per week, said Tim Yates, chief marketing officer of Vodafone UK. To keep prices low, Vodafone has chosen to limit service and not allow users to copy downloaded tunes to other devices, such as PCs, according to Al Russel, head of content services at Vodafone UK. Vodafone plans a premium service that, for an additional fee, will allow users to synchronize the content on their handsets with their PCs, he said.
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Essar is keeping its 33% stake in Hutchison Essar after Vodafone bought out its partner, Hutchison Telecom.
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Vodafone buys a controlling stake in Indian mobile phone firm Hutchison Essar for $11bn (Â£5.6bn).
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US telecom giant AT&amp;T is not considering a bid for British mobile phone operator Vodafone, but is likely to make smaller acquisitions to better meet the needs of multinational companies, the company&#39;s chief executive said in an interview published Tuesday.
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Vodafone Group has denied a Monday report by the Financial Times that it was considering buying Verizon Communications in a huge $160 billion deal.
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British mobile phone giant Vodafone agreed to buy an 11-billion-dollar controlling stake in India's Hutchison Essar in an attempt to move into the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market.
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British-based mobile phone group Vodafone  said on Monday it had no plans to bid for U.S. group Verizon Communications Inc , denying a media report.
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Mobile-phone giant Vodafone's purchase of a 11.1-billion-dollar stake in India's Hutchison Essar has been welcomed by local contenders, smoothing its entry into the world's fastest-growing wireless market.
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Business & money: Sir Richard Branson's group says it cannot continue to promise there will be no cuts if it succeeds in bid
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(InfoWorld) - 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. Vodafone announced late Sunday that it has agreed to acquire companies that control a 67 percent stake in Hutchison Essar from Hutchison Telecommunications International, a subsidiary of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa. Hutchison Telecommunications holds a majority stake in Hutchison Essar both directly and through a joint venture company in which Indian partners hold shares. Vodafone will pay $11.1 billion in cash for the acquisition, along with assuming $2 billion in debt, through its subsidiary Vodafone International Holdings. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, and is conditional to Indian regulatory approval, it said. Hutchison's decision came over the weekend, after it evaluated bids from four key contenders including Indian mobile services provider Reliance Communications, the Hinduja Group of the U.K., and Indiaâs Essar Group, which holds 33 percent in Hutchison Essar, according to informed sources. Vodafone will offer to acquire the Essar Groupâs stake at the same price per share it is offering Hutchison, the company said. Indian regulations however do not allow foreign operators to hold more than 74 percent of the equity in an Indian telecommunications service provider. If the Essar Group sells its stake, Hutchisonâs local partners, which together have a 15 percent interest in Hutchison Essar, will increase their interest to 26 percent, Vodafone said. The Essar Group said in its statement late Sunday that it was evaluating an offer from Vodafone to be a partner. The Essar Group has the option to continue as an equity holder in Hutchison Essar or sell its stake along with Hutchison Telecommunications. Vodafone has been seeking Hutchisonâs stake since December last year, and in January the companyâs CEO,Â Arun Sarin visited India to press its caseÂ with the Indian government and business partners here. India is adding over 6 million new mobile subscribers every month. Hutchison Essar had 23.3 million customers as of December 31, 2006, which gave it a 16.4 percent market share. Vodafone also offered Sunday to sell its stake of 5.6 percent in Bharti Airtel, also a large Indian mobile services operator, to another company of the Bharti Group for $1.6 billion, double the price for which itÂ acquired the stake in 2005. It also announced a memorandum of understanding with Bharti Airtel for infrastructure sharing with Hutchison Essar.
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Indian NGO says that Vodafone investment in mobile services operator Hutchison Essar is in breach of government regulations.