Dutch State Sells Rest of KPN Stake for EU1.7 Billion
The Dutch government agreed to sell its remaining 8 percent stake in Royal KPN NV, the biggest Dutch phone company, for about 1.7 billion euros ($2.17 billion) to lower debt.
KPN will buy 80 million shares for about 800 million euros, The Hague-based company said today in an e-mail. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are today selling 87 million to money managers, the banks said in an e-mail to clients.
The Dutch state is selling stakes to foster competition and generate cash to pay down debt. The government has raised at least 10 billion euros since 2003 selling stakes in 18 companies including KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV and TNT NV, which operates the Dutch postal service, before today.
“The government is a smart investor and usually picks the right time to sell,” said Philippe Kiewiet de Jonge at ABN Amro Asset Management in Amsterdam, who helps manage 480 million euros, including KPN shares. “It means something that the state is selling against this price. From this level, KPN needs an extra push to rise.”
Shares of KPN, headed by Chief Executive Officer Ad Scheepbouwer, fell as much as 19 cents, or 1.9 percent, to 9.85 euros and traded at 9.88 euros as of 10:05 a.m. in Amsterdam. Before today, shares had gained 19 percent this year, while the benchmark AEX-index rose 9.5 percent.
Swisscom, Telekom Transactions
European governments have been cutting stakes in their country’s former phone monopolies as they further open up telecommunication markets. Switzerland’s government last week sold a $1.8 billion stake in Swisscom AG, the country’s largest phone company, three months after lawmakers blocked a proposal to sell the shares to the public.
In April, Germany’s state-owned development bank sold a 2.68 billion-euro stake in Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe’s largest phone company, to Blackstone Group LP, a New York-based buyout firm.
The Dutch government first sold shares in an initial public offering in KPN in 1994 and owned 8 percent of the company before today’s sale, according to the Web site of the Finance Ministry.
In December, the state gave up its golden share in KPN, which gave it veto rights over decisions such as mergers, takeovers and share sales, removing a hurdle to a potential takeover of the former Dutch phone monopoly.
Lowering Borrowings
The Dutch state plans to use the proceeds of about 1.7 billion euros to lower borrowings, said Finance ministry spokesman William Lelieveldt. NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd. advised the Dutch government on the sale.
The Netherlands’ debt is forecast to drop to 265.3 billion euros next year from 265.7 billion euros in 2006, according to the 2007 budget presented to parliament by Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm on Sept. 19.
KPN is eliminating about 8,000 jobs by the end of 2009 to increase profit margins. The company is also investing in services such as digital television as customers flee its traditional phone service for competitors including Tele2 AB.
Takeover Target?
“This step might further increase takeover speculation,” Frank Claassen, an analyst at Rabo Securities in Amsterdam, wrote in a note to investors. “We did not consider this last 8 percent stake of the Dutch state to be a major hurdle.” He rates KPN shares “hold.”
“KPN may indeed be a takeover target, but it may easily take another” one to two years, according to Claassen.
The company said last month second-quarter net income doubled to 464 million euros on job cuts, higher German mobile revenue and new services including Internet calls. The company raised its full-year earnings forecast.
Source- http://www.bloomberg.com
Technorati : KPN, Mobile, Netherland, Swisscom Mobile
Ice Rocket : KPN, Mobile, Netherland, Swisscom Mobile
Fortinet Wins Security Deal With Swisscom Mobile
SUNNYVALE, CA — (MARKET WIRE) — 09/25/06 — Fortinet — the pioneer and leading provider of multi-threat security solutions — today announced that Swisscom Mobile AG, the leading provider of mobile communications services in Switzerland, has purchased Fortinet’s FortiGate(TM)-5000 Series carrier-class security systems, FortiGuard subscription services, and management and analysis systems. Fortinet solutions will serve as a cornerstone for Swisscom to build a state-of the art defense platform to protect its base of 4.5 million customers from an array of mobile cyber threats.
Swisscom Mobile chose Fortinet over competing offerings based on the comprehensive security, scalability and deployment flexibility the FortiGate-5000 Series systems provided. Swisscom Mobile is taking a proactive approach to securing its customers against the proliferation of mobile malware that could reach end users through an array of communication vectors such as MMS, email or web traffic. The mobile operator is using Fortinet’s FortiGate-5000 chassis based systems and FortiGuard Antivirus, Intrusion Prevention (IPS) and Web Content Filtering subscription services.
“Swisscom Mobile’s ongoing commitment to security is greatly benefited from Fortinet’s technology, which continuously protects our customers from mobile malware and helps safeguarding the continuity of subscriber services,” said Marcel Zumb¼hl, Head of Security Swisscom Mobile. “Fortinet’s FortiGate-5000 carrier security platform — with its advanced, flexible capabilities — is a cornerstone of Swisscom Mobile’s security infrastructure and, along with necessary mobile client protection, helps us ensure that our customers can safely enjoy mobile services today and in the future.”
Fortinet has had a targeted effort underway to address the growing network and content security needs of mobile operators. The company’s investments in development, sales and marketing have resulted in new products — including FortiGate-5000 Series blades tailored for mobile operators and FortiClient Mobile end-point security software — and numerous sales wins with leading mobile operators around the globe.
Comprehensive Security Platform for Secure Mobile Communications
FortiGate-5000 chassis-based security systems are the industry’s first and only security solutions to comply with the Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) standard for next generation of carrier grade communications equipment. Mobile operators, telecommunication carriers, service providers and large enterprise customers can configure FortiGate-5000 systems in a variety of ways to offer unmatched performance, reliability, scalability and security.
All FortiGate systems deliver comprehensive network and content protection through the integration of eight essential security applications and services — antivirus, firewall, VPN, intrusion prevention (IPS), anti-spam, anti-spyware, Web filtering and traffic shaping. The systems are kept up to date automatically by Fortinet’s FortiGuard subscription services, which provide continuous updates to ensure protection against the latest viruses, worms, Trojans, and other threats — around the clock, and around the world.
“As users increasingly leverage mobile devices as mainstream business tools, the stakes of security become even higher and the challenges placed upon mobile operators even greater,” said Andre Stewart, Fortinet’s vice president of sales, EMEA. “Swisscom Mobile represents one of a number of mobile operators who are using Fortinet’s security platforms to safeguard their infrastructures and deliver an array of value-added security services to their customer base.”
About Swisscom Mobile
With a market share of 63.5% of business in force, Swisscom Mobile is the market leader in the Swiss mobile communications sector. In the fiscal year 2005 Swisscom Mobile generated net revenue of around CHF 4.2 billion and now has some 4.5 million NATEL subscribers. Swisscom Mobile is a public limited company with Swisscom Ltd holding a 75% equity stake and the Vodafone Group Plc the remaining 25%. The company operates several state-of-the-art wireless networks, which are the basis for a comprehensive mobile broadband network that enables high-quality mobile communication services. The innovative character of Swisscom Mobile is among others reflected in the development of the Mobile Unlimited PC card, which offers an automatic, seamless and fast way to make mobile connections to the Internet. In 2005, Swisscom Mobile won the GSM Award for this innovation.
About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com)
Fortinet is the pioneer and leading provider of ASIC-accelerated multi-threat security systems, which are used by enterprises and service providers to increase their security while reducing total operating costs. Fortinet solutions were built from the ground up to integrate multiple levels of security protection — including firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, VPN, spyware prevention and antispam — providing customers a way to protect multiple threats as well as blended threats. Leveraging a custom ASIC and unified interface, Fortinet solutions offer advanced security functionality that scales from remote office to chassis-based solutions with integrated management and reporting. Fortinet solutions have won multiple awards around the world and are the only security products that are certified eight times over by the ICSA (firewall, antivirus, IPSec, SSL, IDS, client antivirus detection, cleaning and antispyware). Fortinet is privately held and based in Sunnyvale, California.
Source- http://www.sys-con.com
Technorati : Mobile, Swisscom AG
Ice Rocket : Mobile, Swisscom AG
Optaros Develops Web 2.0 Solution for Swisscom Mobile
BOSTON, GENEVA and MUNICH, Germany–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sept. 19, 2006–Optaros Inc., an open source software consulting and integration firm that provides enterprises with online platforms for the next generation of the Internet, today announced the development of Swisscom Mobile Labs (http://labs.swisscom-mobile.ch/), an innovative web platform and testing environment for Swisscom Mobile that all Internet users can access. The environment allows the leading Swiss telecommunications company to propose and introduce new products and services at an early stage to interested people. Swisscom Mobile Labs enables users to download and use products and services and to comment on, evaluate and rate proposed services. By facilitating a discussion and ongoing communication with users, Swisscom Mobile can present new services early to improve and optimize these services based on user feedback or to adapt or change services completely if needed.
Swisscom Mobile Labs is one of the first known “Web 2.0″-oriented offerings in Switzerland and illustrates a new approach on how services can be developed, tested and proliferated iteratively while leveraging customer input and feedback. This approach is commonly referred to by Web 2.0 experts as “perpetual beta.”
Optaros developed the entire web platform in approximately four weeks and used modern technologies such as Ajax, Alfresco’s repository content, as well as many other open source frameworks and components.
“We are excited about the quality of the application and the speed in which the platform has been developed and put into production. Very seldom do we receive such innovative and mature solutions for acceptance,” said Stefan Mauron, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Swisscom Mobile.
Besides having developed the solution following Optaros’ Assembly methodology, Optaros also handles the operation and maintenance of the platform.
“The web platform Swisscom Mobile Labs clearly shows the way that many enterprises will go in the future,” said Bruno von Rotz, Vice President and Country Manager for Optaros in Switzerland. “Labs such as the one we implemented for Swisscom Mobile help to adjust and optimize products, communication offerings and services to the needs of the customer. We are happy that Swisscom Mobile leverages our open source and next generation internet expertise in such an innovative endeavor.”
Source- http://biz.yahoo.com
Technorati : Mobile, Swisscom Mobile
Ice Rocket : Mobile, Swisscom Mobile
Ericsson: world network business to grow 5-10 pct
ZURICH, Sept 20 (Reuters) – The global networks business will expand by between 5 and 10 percent in 2006, the head of the world’s biggest mobile phone network equipment maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
“We have not changed anything in our forecasts … We are still expecting moderate growth, which for us means 5 to 10 percent,” Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg said in an interview in Switzerland’s Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper.
Svanberg was referring to growth in the global networks business, the twice-weekly business newspaper sai
Earlier this month, Ericsson shares lost ground after Svanberg told reporters at a news conference in Taipei that he saw the world’s biggest mobile telephony standard GSM and its successor WCDMA expand by about 5 percent in 2006.
But the company later clarified that it had not lowered its growth forecast for those markets and that it still expected growth of between 5 and 10 percent globally.
Svanberg also told the newspaper the company did not plan to return part of its high liquidity pool to shareholders by raising its dividend or by buying back shares.
Source- http://today.reuters.com
Palm Introduces Windows Mobile-Based Treo 750v Smartphone for Vodafone Customers
Palm has announced the Palm Treo 750v, the first Treo to take advantage of Vodafone’s 3G/UMTS network around the world. The new Treo 750v will be available first to Vodafone customers in the following countries:
Austria
,
France
,
Germany
,
Ireland
,
Italy
,
Netherlands
,
Spain
,
Switzerland
, the
UK
and other regions by the end of the calendar year.
The Treo 750v combines the Palm experience of a multifeatured mobile phone with email, messaging, web browsing and organization software all in a new compact design.
The new device comes with Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for Windows Mobile 5.0, which includes Direct Push Technology and enhanced security features free and out of the box, when combined with a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 for communications.
It is also fully compatible with Vodafone Business Email, giving remote access to enterprise and Internet-based email accounts.
Unique to the Treo smartphone on Windows Mobile 5.0 is a suite of software enhancements developed by Palm, including Today screen enhancements, which feature the ability to “dial by name” with a few keystrokes on the keyboard, perform a web search directly from the Today Screen and perform one-touch dialing with personalized photo speed dials.
Also featured is the ability to manage a call directly from the Today Screen and stay on top of voicemail with on-screen, VCR-like icons, such as rewind, delete and fast-forward controls for easy navigation.
For users who are constantly busy in meetings and appointments, the software supports the ability to ignore a call and quickly compose a text message, such as “In a meeting” or “Can’t talk”.
The Windows Mobile 5 platform comes with mobile versions of Microsoft Office applications (including Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel), a messaging application for e-mail, SMS and MMS and 1.3 megapixal digital camera.
Users can expand the built-in memory through miniSD cards, and connect to other devices via Bluetooth, which also supports Bluetooth enabled stereo headsets, so users can enjoy multimedia through the built-in Windows Media Player 10 mobile.
Source- http://www.geekzone.co.nz
Technorati : Mobile, New Zealand, Palm, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : Mobile, New Zealand, Palm, Vodafone
Vodafone to sell stake in Swisscom Mobile says reports
News reports have said that Vodafone are planning to sell its stake in Switzerland’s Swisscom Mobile, where Vodafone has had a 25% stake in the company since 2001.
This comes as no surprise when they have just sold their stake in Belgacom’s mobile unit Proximus and Vodafone are looking to reduce their debt.
Some reports value Swisscom Mobile stake at around 3.5 billion swiss francs (compared to the 4.5 billion swiss francs that Vodafone paid in 2001.
Source- http://www.union-network.org
Technorati : Mobile, Swisscom Mobile, Switzerland, Vodafone
Ice Rocket : Mobile, Swisscom Mobile, Switzerland, Vodafone
