TOKYO-NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it may cut back its current 16-percent stake in AT&T Wireless due to the U.S. carrier’s declining stock price, even though DoCoMo recently increased its investment in AT&T Wireless to maintain its current holding, following AT&T Wireless’ stock-based purchase of TeleCorp PCS.
“The share price has been on a downtrend. But their earnings are not so bad,” an NTT spokesman told Reuters. “We need to weigh both factors, but this is one option for us.”
The announcement comes a day after AT&T Wireless reported disappointing customer additions for the second quarter, sending the carrier’s stock price down more than 12 percent in early Wednesday trading to a new 52-week low of $4.17 per share. When DoCoMo made its initial $9.8 billion investment in AT&T Wireless in late 2000, the carrier’s tracking stock price was trading at around $18 per share. The Japanese telecom giant was forced to write down the value of its international investments earlier this year due to falling telecommunication valuations.
In a sign of support for its AT&T Wireless investment, DoCoMo said it signed a memorandum of understanding with AT&T Wireless to jointly showcase third-generation services in the United States based on DoCoMo’s FOMA service this fall. The showcase will use a FOMA base station at AT&T Wireless’ offices in New York that will allow visitors to experience the 3G service.
DoCoMo also reported it signed an agreement with Spanish mobile operator Telefonica Moviles S.A. to launch its i-mode service in Spain early next year. DoCoMo said it would provide patents, know-how and technologies needed for Telefonica Moviles to offer i-mode service over a GPRS network in Spain.
DoCoMo currently licenses its i-mode service to Dutch operator KPN Mobile N.V., Germany’s E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co., Base in Belgium and France’s Bouygues Telecom S.A.
The two companies also agreed to form a business and technology alliance to share GPRS/SIM card technologies, opinions on handset evolution toward 3G and to jointly study the possibility of implementing international roaming services.
