NTT DoCoMo Purchases a $9.8 billion Stake in AT&T Wireless

TOKYO, Dec. 1 -- In a move to establish its IMT-2000 mobile communications system and related mobile Internet services in the US market, Japan's biggest mobile phone company, NTT DoCoMo Inc., has agreed to buy a 16 percent stake in AT&T Wireless. NTT DoCoMo will pay $6.2 billion to AT&T Wireless and $3.6 billion to AT&T, which puts AT&T Wireless' tracking stock at $23.50 per share -- 31 percent higher than its closing price as of Nov. 28.
The Alliance integrates AT&T Wireless's nationwide network infrastructure with NTT DoCoMo's i-mode-based mobile Internet technology, which enables users to access Internet services via their cellular telephones, giving NTT DoCoMo the necessary mobility to promote its mobile network in the global marketplace and AT&T Wireless the necessary mobile communication technologies and related business know-how to strengthen its competitiveness.