Business Buzz

Battle for Hutch December 29, 2006

The bidding war is on for Hutch. Vodaphone,Essar are bidding $17 Billion and $11 Billion respectively to buy out Hutchinson Telecom’s stake. Now Reliance is in the fray as well.

I still remember in 1996/97 when Mobile services started in India,my colleauges in the US,HK etc used to make fun of the lack of mobile population in India. I still remember a top executive at one of the Singapore carriers telling me that India will never be a “volume” market because Mobiles were the purview of the upper middle class.

Well…how things have changed.. we are adding millions of mobile users every month, the mobile phone is now used by everyone from the high-flying executive to the guy selling vegetables on the street. The valuations of the Mobile companies is unbelievable.

The eventual winner in all this – The Indian customer.

As far as Hutch is concerned.. I hope the Network will still follow the customer. I have heard that the “dog” tends to stray a bit. (this will make no sense to someone who hasn’t seen the Hutch Ad).