The long-awaited venture will dwarf AT&T's wireless service in number of regions. The deal could also spur consolidation in the sector as more companies try to create national networks, an AT&T senior wireless executive said.
"I think all significant wireless carriers are going to have to have a significant national footprint in the relatively near future," said Jordan Roderick, executive vice president for wireless products and technology in AT&T's wireless services unit.
The joint venture will enable Vodafone and Bell Atlantic to offer a "a much more competitive service package," especially to corporate customers, he said.
"This is part of an ongoing consolidation and I think there will be more," Roderick added. The companies "can offer nationwide service to corporate customers, which is one of their reasons for the merger in the first place."
Kevin Roe, an analyst with ABN Amro, called the joining of forces "a fantastic deal."
The two companies will have the scale to be able to create competitive pricing plans, especially for corporate customers, and drive down equipment costs, he said.
Bob Wilkes, an analyst at Brown Brothers Harriman, said the Vodafone move was part of a long series of mergers among jostling telecommunications heavyweights.
He added that BellSouth and Ameritech could be among potential future partners, since they share CDMA technology. CDMA stands for code division multiple access and is one of the digital mobile phone systems.
The Bell Atlantic-Vodafone merger would create easily the biggest U.S. mobile phone network, with 20 million customers. AT&T has about 11 million customers, and Sprint PCS Group, the next-largest system, has about 4 million.
Bell Atlantic will own 55 percent of the new company and Vodafone will own the rest.
The network that Vodafone inherited in its $62 billion takeover of San Francisco's AirTouch in January covers most of the U.S. western states. Bell's system covers most of the East coast.
Bell Atlantic and Britain's Vodafone said they would fuse their U.S. wireless businesses in a joint venture worth more than $70 billion.
Story Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. SEATTLE--Getty Images, the only publicly traded image archive, agreed to buy Image Bank from Eastman Kodak for $183 million in cash to boost its online sales to businesses and individual customers.
Dallas-based Image Bank has more than 30 million still images and 15,000 hours of motion images, and almost 500 employees worldwide. Getty Images said the purchase will be financed through a combination of debt and the proceeds of an offering of about 5 million shares it expects to file soon.
Seattle-based Getty Images sells to advertising agencies, magazines, broadcasters, and others. When the acquisition is completed, it will have more than 60 million images and more than 30,000 hours of footage.
Image Bank has been a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak since 1991.
Getty rose 1.75 to 24.75 in afternoon trading, while Eastman Kodak fell 0.56 to 74.94.
Copyright 1999, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. PeopleSoft founder David Duffield is stepping down as chief executive of the struggling business software maker, the company said today.
The 12-year-old company announced that president and chief operations officer Craig Conway will take on the additional role of chief executive officer. Duffield will remain chairman of PeopleSoft's board.
The news came as little surprise to industry observers who say Duffield, 58, had already retreated from overseeing daily operations at the company after Conway came aboard in late May.
"It's been obvious for a year or more that David wanted to get out," said Jim Shepherd, an analyst at Boston-based AMR Research. "He's tired. He's done it."
Amid Duffield's role change and Al Duffield's recent retirement, a line of top level managers have left PeopleSoft amid the company's struggle to boost software license revenues and reinvent its business software for the Internet.
Pleasanton, California-based PeopleSoft's shares have plunged 45 percent in the last year because of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market saturation and investor concern that corporations are delaying purchases while they fix Year 2000 computer problems. PeopleSoft and rivals, such as SAP and Baan, have also been hurt by the industry slowdown, though some analysts say the market will rebound by the middle of next year.
"Typically, when a company doesn't perform, the CEO is the first to go," said Steve Bonadio, an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based Meta Group. Bonadio said Duffield had a difficult job trying to deal with the company's recent financial downturn, and Conway has an even bigger challenge ahead of him.
"Not many people know Conway," Bonadio added. "Since he took the helm of PeopleSoft, he hasn't been the most visible of people. There's a question mark there on whether he can get the job done, whether he has the charisma or vision to do an effective job at PeopleSoft."
At the company's annual user conference held in New Orleans last month, Conway regained some enthusiasm as he laid out plans for PeopleSoft's Internet strategy as well as a commitment to send more sales representatives back into the field to support the company's software installations. Some analysts say Conway is already moving to build a more organized corporate culture within PeopleSoft, which had been known under Duffield as a casual, employee-friendly place.
"Conway's focus is on pragmatic, tactical things to get the company in good operating form right now," said AMR Research's David Caruso. Despite having a grasp on the company's problems, Caruso said the user conference lacked any strong announcement that would drive people to bank on any aggressive PeopleSoft comeback.
Conway, who is 44, is former chief executive of San Jose, California-based OneTouch Software. Duffield will continue to focus on building relationships with customers and employees, the company said.
"There's no doubt that Conway has a tough job ahead of him, but he has a great brand name with a loyal customer base," AMR's Shepherd said. "He's walking in at the low point, but by no means is the company not going to survive."
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.