NTT DoCoMo Increases Stake in ACCESS

Posted By: Ryan Thursday, December 29, 2005 2:41:58 PM

Michael Mace is reporting on this blog that, Japanese Telcom NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is raising its ownership of ACCESS from 7% of the company's stock to 11.66%, for a price of about $120 million. This effectively puts DoCoMo in an a minority ownership stake of the Palm OS and the upcoming Linux version.

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Ancient news...

Surur @ 12/29/2005 6:37:34 PM #

This is most ancient news. It was old when Micheal reported it, Micheal's post itself is more than a week old.

I'll just add my comment from last time (also Micheal's comment). Access is being bankrolled by DoCoMo, which will likely dictate the development priority and nature of NetfrontOS. Expect lots of network access and dependency, and little development of the PDA aspect.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Ancient news...

PenguinPowered @ 12/29/2005 7:53:45 PM #

Well, buying 4% of a company's stock on the open market hardly qualifies as 'bankrolling', but I'm sure Access will continue to pay attention to DoCoMo, who was already a big customer.

Marty Fouts

I survived PalmSource '05

RE: Ancient news...

Surur @ 12/29/2005 8:16:17 PM #

Making a capital investment of $130 million = bankrolling to me.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Ancient news...

PenguinPowered @ 12/29/2005 9:59:39 PM #

Well, if the money had gone to Access, I'd consider it bankrolling, but IIRC, DoCoMo bought Access stock on the market, so Access isn't going to see any of that investment.

Marty Fouts

I survived PalmSource '05

RE: Moron :)

Dr Opinion @ 12/30/2005 2:01:05 PM #

With wince developers and licensees quitting the dying m$ mobile platform, of course the palm economy looks rosier. Of course, the DoCoMo investment cannot entirely be entirely exaplained by the failure of wince, since wince never actually had any significant Asian penetration anyway. :)

> "...Making a capital investment of $130 million = bankrolling to me..."

Moron. Buying stock from investors is not bankrolling. It simply means that DoCoMo's biz dev folks have a model that suggests the investment will be profitable. HTH. HAND. :)

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"People who like M$ products tend to be insecure crowd-following newbies lacking in experience and imagination."

RE: Ancient news...

ocspub @ 12/30/2005 2:57:03 PM #

> Well, if the money had gone to Access, I'd consider
> it bankrolling, but IIRC, DoCoMo bought Access stock
> on the market, so Access isn't going to see any of
> that investment.

Well, looking at the press release on DoCoMo's site...

http://www.nttdocomo.com/presscenter/pressreleases/press/pressrelease.html?param%5Bno%5D=597

it talks about the shares being "newly allocated". Doesn't sound like an "open market" purchase to me.

Oliver

Visit www.tapland.com for Zodiac news and discussion.

RE: Ancient news...

Surur @ 12/30/2005 3:26:56 PM #

Thanks for that quote. I suspected as much, but did not feel motivated enough to do the research. Also I thought Marty as a recent Access employee would know what he's talking about...

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Ancient news...

ocspub @ 12/30/2005 4:39:17 PM #

As far as "bankrolling" is concerned, though, we probably all remember that 6% equity stake in PalmSource that Sony acquired 3+ years ago, and how much that has driven the direction of PalmOS ;)

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=4331

Oliver

Visit www.tapland.com for Zodiac news and discussion.

RE: Ancient news...

Surur @ 12/30/2005 6:29:54 PM #

You mean like high res dual wireless multimedia PalmOS PDA's?

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Ancient news...

PenguinPowered @ 12/30/2005 7:42:26 PM #

yes, if they bought the stock directly from access, it's bankrolling. thanks for the correction.

Marty Fouts

I survived PalmSource '05

RE: Great news!

Dr Opinion @ 12/30/2005 7:53:30 PM #

Bankrolling PalmLinux! Yay! :D

------
"People who like M$ products tend to be insecure crowd-following newbies lacking in experience and imagination."

More B.S. from Marty Fouts

The_Voice_of_Reason @ 12/31/2005 11:40:27 AM #

Well, buying 4% of a company's stock on the open market hardly qualifies as 'bankrolling', but I'm sure Access will continue to pay attention to DoCoMo, who was already a big customer.

Enough with the lies, Marty.

------------------------
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.
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The Palm eCONomy = Communism™

The Great Palm Swindle: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=7864#108038

NetFrontLinux - the next major cellphone OS?: http://www.palminfocenter.com/comment_view.asp?ID=8060#111823

More Japanese only products I will soon want

benamy @ 12/29/2005 6:33:12 PM #

It looks like NTT DoCoMo sees the future clearly.

Linux based smartphones. And I am sure they will execute with the precision, efficency, and wow they always do.

I was just in Japan last month and saw a brochure for a NTT DoCoMo Mobile Phone History Museum. It is located in Tokyo on the island across Rainbow Bridge by Shinagawa-ku park.

The museums web address on the brochure is: http://www.std-mcs.nttdocomo.co.jp/history-s/

I have not been to the site so I don't know if it is in English or not.

I sure am going to make the effort the next time I am there to get in and see the museum. The Japanese in my past experiences have always been very good at showing you what they are currently doing even in there museums. The brochure has a timeline of exhibits that go up to 2004. With 2005 ending I am sure they will update very soon.

Ben