financialville.swiftmessage.com/...wci=messagelist&board=PCCLF
17:34 04-JAN-2000
HK grants satellite licence to PCCW unit HONG KONG, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government said on Tuesday it had granted
a satellite television uplink and downlink licence to Starbucks (HK) Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pacific Century CyberWorks .
Starbucks planned to launch a regional free-to-air satellite television channel in the first half of 2000, the government said in a
statement.
The licence, issued under the Telecommunication Ordinance, was for a term of 12 years, it said. Starbucks had applied for a licence to
launch a regional free-to-air English TV channel in the first half of 2000, to be followed by a Chinese (Putonghua) channel and a
Japanese channel by the end of this year, the government said. ((Hong Kong Newsroom +852 2843 6441, Fax +852 2845 0636
hongkong newsroom@reuters.com)).
16:54 04-JAN-2000 PCCW , Hikari Tsushin in formal alliance
HONG KONG, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd and Japanese Internet firm Hikari Tsushin Inc announced a strategic
alliance on Tuesday, a week after their co-investment move in Golden Power International Holdings ."The agreement we announced
last week represents a joining of forces of two of the most powerful technology companies in Asia today," Alex Arena, PCCW group
managing director, told a news conference.
Hikari Tsushin and PCCW said on December 28 they would subscribe for new Golden Power shares representing 51 percent and 20
percent of the company's enlarged issued share Capital. Arena said both PCCW and Hikari Tsushin were young and aggressive.
"I am sure this is the first of many joint press conferences you will be attending over the next years," he said. Golden Power would be
renamed Hikari Tsushin International Ltd and become the listed vehicle and holding company for Hikari Tsushin's Asian investments
outside of Japan. But Hikari Tsushin Executive Managing Director Masahide Saito declined to give details of expansion plans for Golden
Power at the news conference.
"We will give more details when the time is appropriate...We have not actually set any limitations in our Internet investment strategy,
either on the content side or the infrastructure side," he said. Golden Power shares had jumped more than 481 percent in the past
week to a year high of HK$23.4
on Monday.
The stock ended off HK$1.95 or 9.42 percent at HK$18.75 on Tuesday on profit-taking.
Arena and Saito said Hikari Tsushin would be interested in investments related to the Japanese company's strength in the wireless
communications and wireless Internet technology fields.Hikari Tsushin, Japan's second largest Internet company with market
capitalisation of about US$62.7 billion, was founded in 1998 as a retailer of telecommunications equipment and was listed on the Tokyo
Stock Exchange in September 1999. Pacific Century CyberWorks is the brainchild of Hong Kong entrepreneur Richard Li and a
subsidiary of Singapore-listed Pacific Century Regional Development .
PCCW is scheduled to launch its Network of the World (NOW) content business over atellite broadband within the next few months.
"In the first half of 2000 we will progressively launch our convergence business," Arena said, adding that content would be in English,
Chinese and Japanese.
(Hong Kong Newsroom, 2847-4017 Fax, 2845-0636 hongkong.newsroom@reuters.com)).
Satellite & cable = Internet throughout China = PCCLF
Brad