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Given the carriers’ huge margins, it’s not an every-day scene to have a company going under. Well that just happened with Japan’s number four mobile operator Willcom, which has filed for bankruptcy with 206 billion yen (about $2.2 billion) in debt. The move won’t please anyone, especially not the U.S. private equity group Carlyle that has 60% stake in the company.
Willcom is now seeking assistance from the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp of Japan, and is in talks with Softbank over a financial bailout. The company had hard time competing with NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and Softbank as the carriers have all been upgrading their networks. Not offering high-speed data in the Land of the rising Sun won’t lead you anywhere. On the other hand, keeping up with the Joneses (three major carriers) costs a fortune.
Willcom ended last year with 4.24 million subscribers, and has already asked for financial protection (ADR) last September. It will keep offering the service until it works out a new restructuring plan.
And for the record, in addition to Carlyle, Willcom’s other shareholders include KDDI and Kyocera, which hold 10% and 30% stake, respectively.
[Via: CellularNews]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
