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DoCoMo eyes $52B US bid
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July 14, 2000: 3:33 a.m. ET
Report: Japanese firm seeks to thwart rival's approach for VoiceStream
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LONDON (CNNfn) - NTT DoCoMo is considering a $52 billion bid to buy cellular operator VoiceStream Wireless Corp. to try to prevent the U.S. firm from falling into German hands, according to a press report Friday.
DoCoMo, the world's second-largest cellular company and Japan's largest firm by market value, would prefer to team up with an existing VoiceStream shareholder, Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., to take a 49 percent holding in the U.S. firm, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The newspaper added that DoCoMo would consider an outright takeover offer of almost $200 per share, worth $52 billion in total. Hutchison owns 23 percent of VoiceStream.
NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc. (DoCoMo's official name) was widely reported in May to be stalking VoiceStream, and its interest appears to have been reignited by more recent reports that Deutsche Telekom AG is considering making an offer of around $180 per share for the U.S. company. VoiceStream (VSTR: Research, Estimates) shares closed on Thursday at 140-7/8, down 6-3/16.
DoCoMo signed a partnership agreement with Hutchison in Europe this week, aimed at jointly bidding for licenses to operate next-generation cellular licenses.
The issue is clouded by the ownership status of DoCoMo and Deutsche Telekom, with the German and Japanese governments retaining significant stakes in the companies. The newspaper reported that the prospect of state-owned overseas companies seeking to buy U.S. firms had sparked some protests by U.S. politicians.
If DoCoMo and Telekom go head to head in the pursuit of VoiceStream it will place two of the world's largest telecom firms on a collision course. Deutsche is Europe's largest player, and has made no secret of its $100 billion-plus war chest, which it wants to use to fund expansion into North America. DoCoMo too, has expansive international ambitions, looking to exploit the popularity in Japan of its Internet-based i-mode service, which is regarded as a good pointer to the next generation of wireless services. 
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