Vodafone tie-up

I witnessed with interest and curiosity, the recent battle between corporate bigwigs like Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Hindujas and Essar group to win the controlling 67% stake in Hutchison Essar. Ultimately the battle was won by Arun Sarin headed Vodafone which beat suitors with a $11.1 bn bid ( hence valuing the firm at $18.8 bn). Although Vodafone was accused of overpaying, its shares rose immediately after acquisition by 1.8 %.



It is interesting to note that the shares of Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. had risen 28 percent since the start of November in anticipation of a sale!

Vodafone also sold its 5.6 % direct stake in Bharti Airtel to Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 bn as per TRAI regulations. However for people on Hutch's network, there is good news in store.

After signing deals with popular online services like MySpace (where customers can access their MySpace accounts through their handsets), eBay( to search and buy items) and Google's Youtube (watch and upload videos to YouTube), Vodafone announced yet another agreement, this time with Google Maps.



The deal will allow Vodafone users to access the Java application, Google Maps for Moblie, offering local listings, search and navigation facilities. However there is still some wait for users in India, as the service is primarily focused at customers in UK and other EU nations.

Note: The image as well as the trademark "Hutch" are proprietary (Courtesy Hutchison Essar Limited).