During the 2001 financial year, BT completed a number of acquisitions of businesses, mainly located outside the UK. The total amount invested, including further funding of existing ventures, was £14,501 million.

In April 2000, we took an equity interest, jointly with Japan Telecom, in a number of regional Japanese mobile phone companies (J-Phone Communications). Instead of investing directly in J-Phone Communications, we guaranteed bank loans to that group totalling £782 million at 31 March 2001. As noted above, we have now sold our interests to Vodafone for £3.7 billion. In June 2000, we acquired for £1,207 million our partner's 50% interest in Telfort, the communications joint venture which we established in the Netherlands in 1997. The wireless business of Telfort was demerged with mmO2 in November 2001. In the 2002 financial year the remaining goodwill was written off.

In the final quarter of the 2001 financial year, we acquired the 55% interest in Viag Interkom that we did not already own under agreements made in August 2000. In January 2001, we acquired a 10% interest in Viag Interkom including its share of the German third generation licence from Telenor for £1,611 million, and in February 2001, we acquired the remaining 45% interest from E.ON for £7,148 million, including its share of the cost of the licence. Goodwill of £4,992 million arose on the transactions. In the light of falling equity valuations for wireless companies in the 2001 financial year, we carried out impairment reviews of the carrying values of Viag Interkom and other major wireless interests at that time. As discussed by following link, we recognised a £3,000 million goodwill impairment in Viag Interkom of which £200 million related to the fixed network business remaining in the BT Group after the mmO2 demerger. In the 2002 financial year the remaining goodwill was written off.

During the 2000 financial year, BT also completed a number of acquisitions of businesses or interests in ventures. The total amount invested, including deferred considerations and further funding of existing ventures, was £8,755 million. The investment in the Concert global venture, in the form of assets contributed, was additional to this.

In November 1999, we completed the acquisition of the 40% minority interest in BT Cellnet held by Securicor. The total cost of this acquisition was £3,173 million, including legal fees and other expenses. BT Cellnet was demerged as a significant part of mmO2 in November 2001.

BT acquired jointly with AT&T a 30% interest in Japan Telecom for £1,254 million in August 1999, with BT having an economic interest of 20%. Concurrent with this transaction, BT sold its Japanese subsidiary to Japan Telecom.

In Canada, BT acquired an effective 9% economic interest in AT&T Canada. In conjunction with AT&T, we jointly purchased 33% of Rogers Wireless (formerly Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications), a leading mobile operator, leaving BT with an effective interest of approximately 17%. The consideration paid by BT in August 1999 for these two investments totalled £659 million. We have now sold our interests in Rogers Wireless and have exited from AT&T Canada.

In January 2000, BT and AT&T announced the financial completion of Concert, the global communications joint venture. This venture was formed by BT transferring the majority of its cross-border international network assets, its international traffic, its business with selected multinational customers, together with Concert Communications, and AT&T transferring similar assets and businesses. The provisional unrealised profit on transferring these assets of £159 million was recognised in BT's statement of total recognised gains and losses in the 2000 financial year. During the 2001 financial year, certain true-up calculations were made causing a downward adjustment of £49 million to the unrealised profit which has been recognised in this year's statement of total recognised gains and losses. As noted above, the Concert joint venture has now been unwound.

In August 1999, we completed the acquisition of the Yellow Book USA classified directory advertising business based in New York for a total consideration of £415 million. The company was sold in June 2001 as part of the Yell transaction. Also in August 1999, we acquired Control Data Systems (renamed Syntegra (USA)), a US-based e-commerce and systems integration company, for £213 million. In May 1999, we acquired a 20% interest in SmarTone of Hong Kong, a leading provider of digital mobile communications services, for £241 million.

Under an agreed offer made in January 2000 and separate transactions with two of its major shareholders, we acquired control of Esat Telecom Group (Esat) at the end of March 2000, following regulatory clearance. We paid the majority of the consideration of £1,558 million in April 2000 after the 2000 financial year end. This Irish communications group held a 49.5% interest in Esat Digifone, Ireland's second largest mobile phone operator. We acquired a further 1% in this company in January 2000, so it also became part of the BT group at the end of March 2000. As noted above, Telenor was the other shareholder in Esat Digifone, with a 49.5% interest which we acquired in April 2001. Esat Digifone was demerged with mmO2 in November 2001, and the remaining goodwill was written off in the 2002 financial year.