DoCoMo RISING

摘要

Ever since Britain's Vodafone Air-Touch PLC acquired Germany's Mannesmann for $163 billion in February, players in Europe's highly competitive telecommunications industry have been bracing themselves for a consolidation wave. But it's not happening as fast as planned: Europe's ex-monopolies are keeping up their record as dismal dealmakers. On May 5, internal squabbling at Spain's Telefonica dashed plans for a merger with Royal KPN, the Dutch national phone company. Last year, Deutsche Telekom failed to pull off a friendly merger with Telecom Italia. And Norway's Telenor and Sweden's Telia in December canceled a planned merger.