Alltel joins the fold and sheds its wireless assets.
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DEALS |
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WHO |
WITH |
WHAT |
SCOOP |
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Valor |
Alltel |
Valor to pay $9.1B for Alltel's wireline business |
The deal makes Alltel a purely wireless company with remaining assets including an estimated 11 million wireless customers in 34 states. |
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Vodafone |
Telsim |
Vodafone to acquire Telsim for $4.5B |
Vodafone outbid Kuwait's MTC to win the auction for the state-owned Turkish operator, which claims 9 million subscribers and 25 percent of Turkey's market. |
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EA |
JAMDAT |
EA to acquire JAMDAT for $680M |
EA said one of the reasons for the acquisition is that the mobile gaming market is more than $1 billion, up to $5 billion in next few years, plus only 40 percent of handsets worldwide are game-enabled so far. |
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DoCoMo |
KTF |
DoCoMo will pay $560M for 10% stake of KTF |
The deal will be made through the allocation of new shares and the acquisition of KTF treasury stock and is expected to be completed by the end of this year. |
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Sprint |
Enterprise Communications Partnership |
Spring acquired the affiliate for $98M |
As part of the deal, Sprint paid $2 million for wireless spectrum licenses held by an Enterprise Communications affiliate. Sprint stands to gain 52,000 wireless subscribers in Alabama and Georgia. |
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iPass |
GoRemote Communications |
iPass to acquire GoRemote for $76.5M |
The all-cash deal will help iPass shift its attention to carriers, ISPs and system integrators in the mobile space. |
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SpectraLink |
Kirk Telecom |
SpectraLink will acquire Kirk for $61.3 |
Under the deal, Denmark's Kirk Telecom will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SpectraLink while continuing to do business under the Kirk brand. |
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MTV Networks |
Amp'd Mobile |
MTV will invest $50M in Amp'd and provide entertainment content |
Amp'd will carry original content from Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, CMT, Spike TV and MTV's other properties. The deal includes video clips, ringtones, screensavers, wallpapers and other types of content. |
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Doughty Hanson |
Spirent |
Doughty Hanson will pay £288.9 million for Spirent's network products |
If the deal goes through, Doughty Hanson will assume £11.2 million in debt and the balance will be paid in cash upon completion of the deal. |
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Carphone Warehouse |
OneTel |
Carphone acquired OneTel for £132 million |
In a separate deal the company bought the UK and Irish fixed line operations of Swedish firm Tele2 for £8.5 million. Carphone said the buying spree is an effort to compete head-on with British Telecom as it expands its current fixed-line subscriber base from 1 million to 2.4 million. |
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Amp'd Mobile |
CBS, UPN |
CBS and UPN will provide mobile video content to Amp'd customers |
CBS reportedly held up the deal for a few weeks (it was supposed to be announced before Thanksgiving) for undisclosed reasons. The networks will provide behind-the-scenes footage, previews, interviews and show clips. |
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Bluetooth Special Internet Group |
Wi-Fi Alliance, NFC Forum |
The groups will hash out standards and ensure interoperability between wireless technologies |
Customers are more and more likely to want an overall wireless strategy as opposed to the traditional need for specific wireless networking technology. |
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Calypso Wireless |
Sleipner |
Calypso finalized the acquisition of Sleipner |
Calypso says the move will enable it to enhance the technology on its C1250i WiFi-GSM-GPRS VoIP smart phone. The deal's terms were not disclosed. |
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Cingular |
Visa |
Launch trials of contactless payment |
The trials of mobile phone payment systems using Near Field Communication technology will take place in Atlanta's Phillips Arena. The 250 members of the trial group will be able to purchase food, drinks, videos and music by waving their phone one to three inches away from NFC terminals. |
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General Wireless |
3 |
Teamed up to launch PC-to-mobile MMS |
The service, called 3PC Message, is an eMMS solution that integrates PC-based email with mobile text and multimedia messaging. The service is compatible with Microsoft Outlook but can also be used by subscribers with standalone Windows client software. |
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Sprint |
MSpot |
Offer full-length movies, TV shows on mobile phones |
For a flat monthly fee of $6.95, plus the regular data charges, customers can watch movies in segments, much like a DVD setup. |
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Sprint Nextel |
Velocita Wireless |
Sprint to acquire Velocita |
In a move aimed at enhancing its iDEN network coverage, Sprint Nextel plans to use Velocita's 900 MHz spectrum to supplement the iDEN network it acquired along with Nextel Communications. |
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SunCom Wireless |
Qpass |
Agreed to an expanded two-year licensing deal |
As part of the deal, SunCom will add Qpass' content delivery platform and content management services to its Downloadables service. Qpass' technology and services will allow SunCom subscribers to manage and personalize premium content transactions and download ringtones, games, graphics and other digital media to their mobile phones. |
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Verizon Wireless |
Warner Bros. |
Agreed to mobile content deal |
Scenes and trailers from the WB Network shows "Everwood," "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville" and "Supernatural" will be available through its VCast service. Both classic and original Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera cartoon shorts will also be offered through VCast. |
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Vonage |
UTStarcom |
Vonage launched the UTStarcom-manufactured WiFi handset |
The handset allows subscribers to use its VoIP service over any public WiFi network. The phone supports all of the features of Vonage home phones, connects with any public 802.11b network and allows the user to save WiFi profiles to facilitate connectivity. |