Australian incumbent Telstra is looking to make some acquisitions, as part of its growth strategy, CEO David Thodey told Dow Jones.
Without mentioning specific deals or regions, Thodey reportedly described Asia as a critically important market, and cloud…
Australian incumbent Telstra is looking to make some acquisitions, as part of its growth strategy, CEO David Thodey told Dow Jones.
Without mentioning specific deals or regions, Thodey reportedly described Asia as a critically important market, and cloud computing, media and entertainment as significant growth areas.
Back in May, the company acquired a controlling interest in Chinese mobile advertising company L Mobile for about A$100m.
In the meantime, Telstra’s structural separation is moving one step closer to reality after the Senate passed the bill, which will see the company split into a retail and wholesale arms.
The bill, which will pave the way for a rollout of the national broadband network (NBN), needed to receive Senate approval before it could be passed into law. It was approved with 30 votes to 28 after the Labour government managed to secure the support of the Greens and an independent senator.
The parliament’s lower house now needs to approve certain amendments, which will likely be just a formality.
At the end of June, Australian telecoms incumbent Telstra signed a nonbinding agreement to participate in the rollout. Under the terms of the agreement, NBN will pay Telstra about A$11bn (US$9.6bn) in phased payments in return for the decommissioning of Telstra’s copper network and the transfer of its customers to a new fibre-optic network, in order to encourage competition.
It is expected that Telstra shareholders will be asked to approve the structural separation in 2011.
