DoCoMo Comments on Cingular Acquisition
WWJ has …so far…refrained from the comment on the AT&T Wireless dealdizmo, the value of which seems to have crept about a billion a day, up to $35b over the last week, according to media speculation. Mmm. The Japanese press has pronounced that DoCoMo has confirmed that it wasnot bidding (and had no intention of getting involved in) any deal about who, what and when was going to suck up the losses and deal with the huge potential with AT&T Wireless Services. Well, we say, ?Quel surprise!” For us, the whole episode was the non-story of the month as regards DoCoMo, because there was no way Keiji Tachikawa was going to put ANY money on the line to prop up AT&T; after the losses DoCoMo got saddled with when its last foreign mobile lebensraum went south. So now AT&T has been Cingulared, it’s time for DoCoMo to cash in its chips.
As it is, DoCoMo anticipates that if the acquisition is consummated, it would have a “considerable effect” on the relationship between DoCoMo and AT&T Wireless, as it would result in all of its shares in AT&T Wireless being converted into cash. On the other hand, DoCoMo today felt fit to comment, no doubt worried about the fate of i-mode in the United States.
After the charges DoCoMo was forced to take following its foreign forays during the telecom bubble, investing in AT&T was perhaps as likely as the U.S. Dubbya’s Martian adventure coming true in 2030 (although WWJ does not rule out the presence of humans on the moon in 2019, no doubt to build a BMD defense system against potential threats from the Andromeda galaxy and get a stake on all that Helium 3.)
Anyway, for a statement on DoCoMo’s level of concern, please check out their press release Here.