(keitai-l) Re: Is H3G's poor performance killing the partnerships and handsets?

From: Benedict Evans <ben_at_ben-evans.com>
Date: 03/11/04
Message-Id: <20040311160414.1213353855@hoggle.dreamhost.com>
Vodafone doubled in size by buying Airtouch for shares. No cash changed
hands. Then it doubled in size again by buying Mannesman, again for shares,
again, with no cash changing hands. Then they sold Orange to FT for around
€30bn in cash. 

In the most recent half-year, profit before goodwill amortisation (i.e.
imaginary accounting charges) was £3.4bn, free cash flow £4.6bn, and debt
£10.9bn - inefficiently low for a company of that size. 

http://www.vodafone.com/assets/files/en/interim_results_2003-4.pdf

Fact-checking really isn’t that hard, you know ;)

-----Original Message-----
From: keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net [mailto:keitai-l-bounce@appelsiini.net]
On Behalf Of Darren Luckett
Sent: 11 March 2004 13:27
To: keitai-l@appelsiini.net
Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Is H3G's poor performance killing the partnerships
and handsets?

no debt - you must be joking. how do you think a small sized british mobile
phone company manged to buy all those other networks - profits? Ill tell
you, by going cap in hand to the banks. when i worked from them - less then
a 1 year ago, their debts where huge. i cant be bothered to track down the
figure but 400 billion dollars with no profit until 2012 spring to mind.

judging by vodafone shareholders reaction to the possible purchase of at&t i
wouldnt say their spending power is as you say. 

i know you arent keen on things docomo - judging by your blog site. knocking
docomo is easy, becuase they are the leaders. i copied many ideas from
docomo that went into the creation of vodafone live. i was as equally proud
of vodafone as you seem, but the fact still remains that docomo sold over
160,000 n900i's in its first week. And in the UK how many of the biggest
selling device shift - nokia 7600 - 3000 units. 

oh yes, and i have just downloaded the software patch for my n900i. i didnt
need to take it back to the shop as i did my 7110, t68i, 8310 and t610.  
what a great and logical feature. another for the europe to copy.

if docomo take over mm02, then the future definately isnt orange, noteven
red, but yellow. i for one shall welcome the people for the land of the
rising sun with greateful arms..

darren 


On Thu, 11 Mar 2004 12:55:36 -0000, Benedict Evans wrote
> Um...
> Vodafone don’t really have any debt. Check the figures. 
> 
> Vodafone didn't buy ATTW. Omnitel came partly with Airtouch and partly 
> with Mannesmann, both of which were all-share transactions.
> And how many billion dollars in cash did they sell Japan Telecom for?
> 
> The truth is that Vodafone has far less debt and far more spending 
> power than anyone else in the industry... including DoCoMo
> 
> BGE
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>     From: "Darren Luckett"<darren@www.ukmedia.us>
>     Sent: 11/03/04 12:06:50
>     To: "keitai-l@appelsiini.net"<keitai-l@appelsiini.net>
>     Subject: (keitai-l) Re: Is H3G's poor performance killing the 
> partnerships and handsets?
>     
>     
>     > I was wondering about H3G capability of having exclusive 
> phones in     > teh future in a moment when the suppliers will have 
> to satisfy all     > the major operators entering the 3G market.
>     
>     not much chance i would say. a sure sign off of a weak product 
> is constant     price drops - they are the bargin-bin of operators.
>     
>     > 
>     > Anyway it is really clear that DoCoMo is moving very badly 
> with     > their investments.
>     
>     They are "moving" a lot less badly than Vodafone and its debt. 
> how quickly     can one forget the massivley overpriced mannesmann 
> purchase? or indded the     at&t, Omnitel, J-phone ... the list goes 
> on. check the figures - see hoew     much debt vodafone have.
>     
>     > 
>     > They should have adopted a certified WAP instead of the stupid 
>     > choice of pushing for their proprietary technology. A 
> "superiority     > sin".  
>     
>     Adopted WAP, you must be joking. its only now after 4 years of 
> relentless     development that wap can even stand in the same 
> league as docomo and ihtml.     oh yes, vodafone live, isnt that 
> brillant - i dont think so. what about the
>     
> 
> [Message truncated. Tap Edit->Mark for Download to get remaining 
> portion.]
> 
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Received on Thu Mar 11 18:10:57 2004