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Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...
So nearly half the population now has one. Apparently the various networks will struggle to cope with demand in the first hour of the new millennium. People out partying look likely to flood the lines, desperate to get through to loved ones to wish them Happy New Year from their perch on the Thames Embankment and tell them about the fireworks.
Clear away the wrapping from this statistic and admire the frenetic pace of this business. Christmas Eve is normally a pretty quiet time of the corporate year. Few results are announced. Even fewer deals are done. Trading in shares is traditionally thin as companies, their advisers and shareholders turn their minds to more festive frivolities.
This year though the day before Christmas is as thick with telecom announcements as a busy Spring morning blustering with results. Although the chances of a White Christmas look pretty remote now, a flurry of mobile bids and counter bids around Europe mean shareholders in Vodafone AirTouch (LSE: VOD), Orange (LSE: ORA) and their European counterparts Mannesmann and Airtel will be surrounded by shreds of crispy white offer documents.
Investment bankers will be reaping the rewards. Apparently Vodafone has already spent £400m on advisory fees during its £89b fight to take over Mannesmann and confirm its position as the continent's leading mobile phone provider. After yesterday's release of the offer document to Mannesmann shareholders the deal looks increasingly likely to succeed.
The political climate in Germany, which has long had an aversion to hostile takeovers (none have ever succeeded), particularly those by foreign companies, is thawing. Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has agreed to relax the rules governing the sales of equity stakes by companies. These transactions will no longer incur tax payments.
Thus the cosy capitalism which has existed for the past fifty years in Germany looks set to shatter. In its place will come the harsh new world of abrasive takeovers and corporate restructuring, in turn ushering in a relentless search for shareholder value. Yesterday the leading index of German shares, the Dax, shot up 4.5%.
This should benefit European companies, enabling alliances to be created. The false dawn of cross-continental operations, which the launch of the Euro last January promised, now looks likely to become reality with the relaxation of corporate taxation like this.
This German bid though, whilst dominating the headlines, is not the only mobile happening to occur on the Continent at the moment. Rule Shaker BT (LSE: BT.A) yesterday launched a last minute counter bid to take control of Spanish mobile company Airtel. Until then Vodafone looked likely to win the Spanish prize with its £16b offer. Scandinavian comapnies have also been chatting recently and Nokia and Ericsson continue to dominate traffic up north.
Also, back on home ground in the UK, Richard Branson, fresh from selling half of his Virgin Atlantic airline to Singapore Airlines, now has £500m to invest in building his Virgin mobile phone brand. This venture has all the hallmarks of a classic Virgin attempt at gaining market share. The Virgin mobile deal is cheaper than many rivals and simpler to understand.
Christmas is so often a time to reflect on the previous year's events. This time around we will have to endure a look back over the past century and millennium as well. However, investing is just as much about looking forward. A successful investor must have a vision of the future. The application of mobile telephony, creating wireless access to the web will change modes of living and working even more in the next few years. Welcome to the mobile millennium.
Being a Fool is also about having fun. So without further ado let me wish everyone a very Happy and Foolish Christmas. Get back to those mince pies now…
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