You'd think that a debt-free, cash-flow-positive Internet service provider (ISP) with $600 million cash would be loading up on acquisitions of telecom and tech outfits struggling to survive in the post-bubble killing fields.
WorldCom late yesterday announced an agreement that should clear up doubts surrounding its acquisition of Intermedia Communications, a telecom company based in Tampa, Fla .Intermedia holds a majority stake in Digex, and some Digex minority shareholders, who thought they were being shortchanged, had sued to block the deal.
A little more than a week after announcing its acquisition by telecom giant SingTel, Pixable is releasing a substantially redesigned version of its iPhone photo aggregation app.
Now that a Department of Justice waiting period has finally expired, the members of the so-called Rockstar Consortium can finally finish up their $4.5 billion acquisition of the one-time telecom giant's hefty patent portfolio.
But the record industry will find other Napster-like services far harder to stop.See article: Shutting down NapsterFrance Telecom is reported to have abandoned talks over a possible $10 billion acquisition of Equant, a Dutch telecoms company.
Although underlying performance was quite strong, with turnover rising by 52% to £22.8 billion, the result was dragged into the red by a series of writedowns, some of them relating to Vodafone's massive acquisition of Mannesmann, a German telecoms company, two years ago.Of course, Vodafone is not alone.
With the acquisition, Ericsson, the world's largest maker of telecom network equipment, will increase its footprint in telecommunications software and services in North America, allowing it to profit from the strong growth of mobile and broadband services.
For France Telecom, the acquisition of Orange vaults it into the upper echelon of European telecommunications competitors, giving it substantial reach beyond its own borders.
The company has said that it is too early to ascertain the impact of France Telecom 's acquisition of local competitor One.
The retiring chief executive also says he is prepared to make more multibillion-dollar acquisitions, whatever it takes to vault his company into its rightful place in the pantheon of telecom gods.
David Elms is a partner and head of media at KPMG What would a BT acquisition of EE mean for the UK telecoms industry?
