PLDT buys majority stake of Sun Cellular

The biggest IT story of the day is PLDT’s acquisition of Digitel
which operates Sun Celluar, the 3rd largest telco player in the
Philippines.

PLDT, which owns Smart Comm., becomes a much bigger operator and strengthening it’s number 1 spot in the country.
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone company announced today
its acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc.
(Digitel) from JG Summit amounting to Php74.1 billion or 51.55% shares
in exchange of new PLDT assets worth 2,500 per share.
Digitel, which owns Sun Cellular, announced that under the new
leadership the paired networks will continue to the expansion of
broadband rollout and other next generation technologies in both fixed
and wired services. {source: PhilStar}
PLDT says Sun Cellular will remain a separate entity and retain the
brand. Smart already surpassed 45 million subscribers in 2010 while Sun
Cellular, which has over 16 million subs, was already inching closer to
Globe Telecom (26.5 million).

Smart’s rapid growth and expansion requires more
wider frequency and that might have prompted the Sun Cellular buy-out.
At the same time, Sun Cellular has become a large player in terms of
post-paid subscribers (even the first one to reach 1 million).
Meanwhile, Smart has only around 500k postpaid subscribers while Globe
has around 900k.

From having 3 large celco players, we now have just 2 — Smart at far #1 and Globe at a minority #2.