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DoCoMo Shopping Again
(06 Jul 2009, BWCS Staff)Japanese mobile giant NTT DoCoMo has bought 35% of the equity in American mobile video company PacketVideo. The purchase is said to be costing DoCoMo US$45.5 million. The operator hopes to use the purchase to bolster its position in the market for advanced video and music services. The two have been long time partners with PacketVideo's technology incorporated in many of the multimedia applications running on the Japanese operator's 3G phone system.
DoCoMo has been in expansionist mood of late: in April of this year it took control of a popular, privately held, direct marketing company in Japan, when it paid Yen 31 billion (US$308 million) for 51% in the Nagoya-based, Oak Lawn Marketing Inc. The marketing company specializes in selling electronic goods and DVDs via the internet, TV and from catalogues. Oak Lawn's success in recent years has been largely attributed to a series of work-out DVDs distributed in Japan and to its Shop Japan TV shows. For the financial year ended March 2008, Oak Lawn grew its revenues by 75% to Yen 39.9 billion.
Earlier, in February of this year, DoCoMo was finally given the green light by the Indian government for its proposed purchase of a stake in local telco Tata Teleservices. Now that the purchase has finally been rubber-stamped, the Japanese operator can begin its move into the world's fastest growing mobile market. DoCoMo is acquiring a 27.31% holding in Tata Teleservices for a cost of 129.3 billion rupees (US$2.6 billion).
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