Cable and Wireless to exit Japan

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2004

TOKYO (AFP) — Cable and Wireless is in talks to quit Japan by selling its money-losing Japanese unit to Softbank or an investment firm in Tokyo.

Cable and Wireless Plc is expected to hammer out a basic accord with either Internet service provider Softbank Corp. or MKS Partners Ltd. as early as October, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Thursday without citing sources.

Negotiations are under way for the sale of the Japanese unit, Cable and Wireless IDC Inc., for 12 billion yen (108 million dollars), the daily said.

Parent firm Cable and Wireless declined comment.

"The company cannot comment on these reports because it regards them as media speculation," a Cable and Wireless spokesman told AFP.

Softbank and MKS also had no comment.

The...