Vodafone pays £1.8 billion for Swisscom Mobile

Vodafone is to acquire a 25 per cent equity stake in Swisscom Mobile in exchange for £1.8 billion. Vodafone can pay for the stake in cash, shares or a combination of the two as it sees fit. In return Swisscom will get access to Vodafone products and services and will take part in its supply chain management.

Japanese giant NEC is reportedly having cosy chats AOL Europe about a possible tie-up. The

reports that NEC's president Koji Nishigaki is even considering an equity stake in the outfit. NEC is reportedly also flirting with France Telecom's subsidiary ISP, Wanadoo. A spokesman for AOL Europe declined to comment.

Online auction house, eBay, has sacked 32 employees at it fine arts outfit, Butterfields, due to restructuring. Yesterday, online chat outfit, Dobedo, confirmed it had sacked 23 people.

Venture capitalists, Redbus, has reported quarterly operating losses of £1.92 million on turnover of £1.1 million for the period ending September 30. It says its cash balance now stands at £100 million. Both turnover and losses were higher than in the previous quarter. The company also announced plans to open four new offices in Madrid, Frankfurt and two in London.

Netcall - which provides a range of Net based solutions and reported a £2.49 million loss before tax for the year to June 30 - plans to raise £4.4 million with the issue of 6.7 million new shares. The cash will be used to grow the business. ®

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