TMCnet News

Vodafone Japan Sells for £6 Billion
[March 17, 2006]

Vodafone Japan Sells for £6 Billion


TMCnet Contributing Editor
 
Vodafone Group announced on Friday that it will sell its 97.68 percent interest in Vodafone Japan to telecom company SoftBank. The sale values Vodafone Japan at an Enterprise Value of approximately ¥1.8 trillion or £8.9 billion of which £6.8 billion will be received in cash on closing. Subsequently, Vodafone will distribute £6 billion of cash to shareholders.


 
"I am pleased to announce this transaction which represents a good outcome for Vodafone. It is at an attractive price, will result in a £6 billion distribution of capital to shareholders and is enhancing to adjusted earnings per share," said Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone.

 
Vodafone and SoftBank have also entered into discussions regarding the formation of a joint working relationship involving participation in the supply and distribution of data and content. The purpose of the relationship is also to provide knowledge and information sharing between the two parties and to ensure that Vodafone continues to have access to the ongoing technological and service developments in the mobile industry in Japan.
 
Vodafone expects the transaction to complete in the first quarter of the financial year ending 31
March 2007.
 
Vodafone made news earlier this month when its Spain division tapped session border control provider Acme Packet to use its Net-Net session border controllers to deliver its 3G video telephony services. Vodafone Spain offers 3G services digital mobile and telephony services to nearly 13 million customers in Spain under the brand name of "Vodafone live! with 3G."
 
Acme Packet session border controllers extend the capabilities of Vodafone Spain's 3G mobile network and enable real-time conversational video telephony calling over both wireless and wireline connections. In delivering this service, Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers support subscriber access with a comprehensive set of security functions including DoS protection against both signaling and media attacks and overloads, access control and network topology hiding.
 
Vodafone Group
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.
 

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