BT has made a number
of significant acquisitions during the past three financial years,
including taking stakes in Japan Telecom and J-Phone and control
of Esat Telecom. We also transferred assets and businesses to Concert,
our global joint venture with AT&T. During the 2001 financial
year, we took sole control of Telfort and Viag Interkom, and, shortly
after the end of the year, took sole control of Esat Digifone.
Telfort
In June 2000, we took full control of Telfort, our Dutch joint venture,
when we acquired, for £1.21 billion (NLG 4.2 billion), the 50% of
Telfort that we did not already own.
Viag Interkom
In January and February 2001, we took sole control of Viag Interkom
by acquiring the remaining 45% which we did not already own from
E.ON (formerly VIAG AG) for £4.6 billion, having already bought
Telenor’s 10% interest for £1.0 billion.
Esat Digifone
In April 2001, we acquired, for £0.85 billion, the remaining part
of Esat Digifone, a mobile operator in the Republic of Ireland,
which we did not already own. This follows our acquisition of control
of Esat Telecom Group in March 2000, for approximately £1.5 billion. |
