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EUROPE'S INTERNATIONAL BUSINES

~ VOl. XVIII N.B2 MONDAY, MAY 29, 2doo

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Can Y Oli Hold? LUCKY STRIKE
Johnson & Johnson
MS STRATEGY
Japan's Bit Valley
HEARD IN EUROI
A drop in brokera!
finds an elusive gene. goes from parties stocks shows
My Video Game
*
Artlcle on page 29 to incubators. UBS's weakness.
Artlcle on_~"e ~ Artlcle on page

Is Ringing Back
Mobile Phones Become

Entertainment Devices
What's News-
]France Te

Gaming en
By ALMAR LATOUR
~e School Bus
* * :". 0* ;+ ~t

J
I Nears Ora:

STAFF REPQRTER
.!, Business and Finance World-Wide
HELSrNKI - Move over, Madonna.
Finnish pop star Erin Koivisto bounds across the out­ RANCE TELECOM AS close \V POLAND'S GOVERNMENT ! Agreement Valued at
door stage in gray overalls and claps her hands over her
ears_ Her all-women band, Nylon Beat, is nanked by
F to an agreement to buy Orange
from Vodafone for about HO billion
plunges into cIisis. 1
Angry at Prime Minister Jerzy I french Company Would Assume DE
two towers of powerfuJ amps, but she's struggling to in cash and stock. France Telecom Buzek's inability to control maver­
make herself heard above a chorus of ringing mobile also wouJd assume debt and the ick lawmakers from his own By ANITA RAGHAVAN
phones below. 1 And GAUTA~l NAIK
cost o[ the third-generation mobile­ SoJidarity bloc. the junior partner
"Can somebody pleeease answer the phone?" she
pJeads into the microphone, tossing back her brown
phone license Orange has agreed
to buy from the U.K. government.
in the center-right coalition voted
to withdraw ils ministers, Iikely
I 5T o'.FF REPORTtRS

LONDON - France Telecom SA i

hair. "I can't hear my own thoughts." (Page 1.) spelling the end for his govern­ close to an agreement to acquire Orang

The crowd roars - and punches more bultons. But PLC from Vodafone AirTouch PLC fo

as the cellular cacophony swells, Ms. Koivisto only

smiles. The noise is money to her ears: The phones are
* * .*
U.S, consumer spending crept
ment that is two and a half years
old. The Freedom Union's execu­
up in April at its slowest rate since tive council voted nearJy unani·
I about i25 billion (€40 billion) in cash an

st0ck - a deal that is expected to be ar

ringing the tune of Nylon Beat's latest hit, "Not Guilty." j nOllnced as early as Tuesday, people f<

- Nylon Beat is the world 's first band to release a hit JuJy, a signal that economic mously for its five ministers to miliar with the situation say.

single on the mobile

phone. Bypassing the
growth may finally be slowing.
(Page 1.) I
submit their resignations today.
(Page 2.) I
The boards of Vodafone, France 'Tel,

com and Mannesmann AG, which a,

usual distribution chan­
nels - CDs, videos and
the Net - Nylon Beat
turned its latest song,
"Not Guilty," into a
celI-phone ringo Within
days of its release,
thousands of Finnish
ieens had downloaded
the song for & 1 a pop. Jonna Kosonen and
Gaulle Airport, which puts it
When the song was En'n Koirista af Nylon Beat
ahead of other space·starved
offered. to radio stations
three weeks later, it filled the Finnish airwaves. When
it comes out on CD this week, it's expected to catapuJt
"Not Guilty" to the top of the local charts.
"Madonna has yet to catch up with us," says Nylon
Beat's other singer. Jonna Kosonen.
That's M-tertainment. Mobile phones are fast
becoming much more than a communications tool for
people on the move. With ever-larger screens and a
growing capacity to transmit data, cell phones are
fighting near the central city of
increasingly becoming electronic wallets, calendars,
l'vlcndefera Jhreatens to uproot
and - for an exploding number of teens and people in
another 200,000 people.
their 20s - playthings. Think hand-held video games,
-/.
cartoons, wireless sex programs, even mobile-phone
*
soccer. This is not vour father's Nokia.
Protestaot part.y narrowly votcd I.J
If all of this sounds iuturistic. guess agaln. A market
[or such services already exists. Last year, the average
Finnish teen spent €950 on mobile·phone services. In
Japan, mobile opera tor NTT DoCoMo has identified
entertainment services - most of them aimed at the
* *Warner-EM!
An AOL-Tlme * deal
may face a tough time in the face
of European antilrust authorities'
narrow definitions of the relevant '
markets. (Page 1.)
* * ."1­
Alr France Is benefiting from
growth potential at Charles de
l begin talks u.'ith Solidarity
leaders.
European carriers. (Page 4.)
~~ -)to *
Airbus's board Is expected to
authorize the start of sales cam­
paign for the A3XX jet at a meet·
II ing in BerIin early next month.
(Page 4.1
* .* -),
I Commerzbank's dispute with
Spokesmen for Vodafone and Oran
its largest shareholder exploded
couldn't immediately be reached.
into public view as CEO
Under the proposed deal, France Tt
Kohlhausscn­ accused Cobra of
com has agrecd to combine its mobile
raising fears about a bre~l<up of
11]1' ".ank. (Paoe 15.)
I ~~ ~ * + revive a power-sharing g-overn­
'\' Spaln bloclled Fenosa's bid to
. take over rival utility Cantabrico
i for €2.7 billion. citing comperition ment. The grass-roots council of
concems. The govemment's move
{ The cOUllcil also held opell
the option af fonning a new ,I quired Orange late last year but whic
itself was taken over by Vodafone, al
I
coalition with the Solidarit.V expected to vote on the agreement toda:
bloc under a new pllme milt· Under the agreement, these people sa:
ister. Fillallce Minisler France Telecom would pay alittle le:
) Leszek {:Ialcerowicz, who than il5 billion in cash and ilO billion
l heads the small, market-ori·
ented F'reedom Union, said
stock to acquir:e Orange, which operat'
a big mobile-telephone network
. after the vale that he lUOllld Britain.
In addition, France Telecom wou
assume about 12 billion in Orange de
* ~A- ..;~ and the roughly 14.J billion cost of t'
third·generation mobile·phone license (
The eve of peace taU[s found
Eritrea and Ethiopia locked in bat­ ange has agreed to buy from the Briti
tie, wilh J1rilrea accusing ils government.
Vodafone would own about 10%
?f
neighbor bombing a power France Telecom after completing the pi
planl. El~iopia denied the accusa­ posed Orange deal, which is subject
tion. Meanwhile, the U.N. coordi­ board and sharehOlder approval.
nator for Eritrea .wBmed that France Telecom declined to comme
Northern Ireland's major *
menI wlth Catholics. the key goal
of the province's J998 peace agree·
the Ulster Unionist Party voted
I Russia Envi

under-25 set - as a cornerstone of its business,

Global forecasts for mobile-entertainment revenues
don 't yet exist. But Swedish phone maker Telefon AB
] opens the door to an offer from

, TXU Europe. (Page 8.)

* * *
459·403 to resume a four-party
Cabinet alongside Sinn Fein, the
Irish Republican Army-linked
:OfNew At(

!
L.M. Ericsson projects that there will be 600 million
mobite Internet users world-wide by 2006 - and that
entertainment wilI be among the biggest revenue-gen­
I Twelve European utilities
J expect to set up one of Europe's
party. (Page 2.)
-}. '- -~ * I--p-Ian Reflects COnC(
1 largest online·procurement Peruvian President Alberto
erators for wireJess providers. Revenues from all wire­
.Iess data services in Europe are expected to balIoon to I exchanges doing business worth at
: least €22 billion a year. (Page 4.)
Fujimori risIled international iso­ I Bv JEAo--:NE WHALF.N
t ST'"" IU:PORTER
lation and violent protests in his '
* * *
PLEA$E TURN TO PAGE 12. COLUMN 1
,----, I
1
Two Hyundal affillates got
quest for a third term in a runoff
I MOSCOW - The Russian govemrr
II
election boycotted by his rival and gave preliminary approval to a plar

R
~~~·<,~j~·~;i:W::.:~J.Ji::;~'L ..: short-term Joans from their main
I creditor, stoking concerns about
How U. S. Cattlemen the financial health of Korea's
I
I largest conglomerate and roiling
Turn a Dead Cow 1 the stock market. (page 8.)
characterized as tainted by for· 1 construct up to 38 new nuclear reactor:
;
eign monitors. Voters lined up by
the hundreds to cast ballots in I 2020, a prohibitively costly program th;
highly unlikely to be fulfilled but wl
Lima and around the country, dis­ ! might reflect Russia's growing concl
regarding Challenger Alejandro 1 over meeting its power needs.
!
'T'..... lorl,,'c: (>':111 tn c:t~v :lW:lV from The Ministry of Aton;ic ~nergy 0