Word: docomo
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...billion shopping binge around the world, snapping up minority ownership stakes in mobile-phone carriers including 25% of Hutchison Telecommunications in Hong Kong, 15% of KPN Mobile in the Netherlands, in addition to the 16% of AT&T Wireless. "Going global is not a good or bad strategy for DoCoMo," says Shinji Moriyuki, a senior analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. "It is a 'must' strategy...
...There's more than revenue growth at stake. There's national pride. Japan's prolonged recession threatens to relegate the country to second-class status among industrialized nations. By selling its i-mode and 3G know-how overseas, DoCoMo hopes to spread the mobile Internet?seeding the market for homegrown Japanese technology and boosting the country's status as an info-age innovator. "With DoCoMo and i-mode, you've got a global brand recognition and excitement over a new product that you haven't seen since the Sony Walkman," says Kirk Boodry, telecom analyst for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein...
...however, DoCoMo's international investments have yielded more red ink than respect. DoCoMo was forced to take a $2 billion write-down for its KPN purchase this past half-year due to the plunge in telecom stocks. It will likely report another hit for its AT&T Wireless investment in the quarter ending March 31. DoCoMo overpaid for its overseas stakes, says Kenshi Tazaki, managing director of consultancy Gartner Japan. "On the other hand, DoCoMo's stock was valued higher then, too," Tazaki says. "At the time they had buying power that, with all the problems they currently face, they...
...Persuading partners to adopt DoCoMo technology is proving difficult. Carriers in other countries have been reluctant to spend heavily to upgrade their wireless data networks, fearing their countrymen do not have the same enthusiasm for photo-swapping, game-playing handsets as the Japanese. After spending billions of dollars getting government licenses to operate 3G systems, many debt-ridden carriers have put plans for network overhauls on the back burner. "The whole point of investing abroad was a speedy roll-out for 3G," says Yasumasa Goda, analyst for Merrill Lynch Japan Securities. "But clearly this is no longer realistic...
...Nevertheless, DoCoMo is pushing ahead. KPN plans to launch its i-mode platform this spring in the Netherlands and Belgium, and E-Plus in Germany?a mobile operator owned partly by KPN?will follow shortly thereafter. DoCoMo also announced plans late last month to list its stock on the New York and London exchanges. Tachikawa says listing in New York and London will boost DoCoMo's visibility on the world stage and increase the liquidity of its shares. The company has hinted that funds raised through the offerings could be used for acquisitions in Asia...