Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Static at Nextel International

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 00:48:58 -0500

Static at Nextel International
Posted:11:13 PM (Manila Time) | May 23, 2002
Inquirer News Service

AFTER poor signals and limited coverage now comes another problem, a potential deathblow,
for the
local Nextel.

The American principals of Nextel Communications, according to the industry grapevine,
have decided to
pack up their bags and write off their investment here. The Philippine departure is part
of the one-billion to
two-billion-dollar asset impairment and restructuring costs Nextel International announced
in the first
quarter.

What is complicating the situation is that the Filipino partners are now squabbling as to
who shall take over
majority stake of the capital-starved radio-cellular phone provider.

According to the grapevine, the US Nextel has decided to exit via a proposed management
buyout of the
Philippine operations under a group headed by Mel Velarde, former president of the
Lopezes’ Sky Cable,
and current Nextel Communications president Jose Alejandro.

The US principals of Nextel had at first wanted to merge the local operations here with
the listed Liberty
Telecoms so it could piggyback on Liberty Telecoms’ national backbone that Nextel does not
have. The
marriage would have made a perfect fit, Liberty Telecoms also being in the trunked-radio
service, but the
merger never took off, according to the grapevine, due to the issue of cost.

Now the planned Velarde takeover is being shot down by a group of local Nextel
shareholders identified
with its founding president and CEO, Antonio Urera.

The ex-president and CEO of Infocom Communications (Infopage), whose franchise it flipped
in favor of
Nextel, Urera left Nextel under bitter circumstances in February 2001 after failing to
obtain a golden
parachute from the US principals, according to the grapevine.

These boardroom issues have started filtering out after a shadowy consumers group,
apparently under the
direction of a Sigma Rhoan lawyer, started lobbying media and Congress to investigate the
alleged US
dummies in Nextel.

The Sigma Rhoan is playing a dangerous game, raising the bogey of dummies, since it could
backfire and
hit his fraternity brothers at the ACCRA law office. After all, it was ACCRA (Angara,
Concepcion, Cruz,
Regala and Associates) that facilitated the incorporation papers and the takeover of
Nextel in what was
then the Infopage paging company.

If you want an independent validation of this account, ask Presidential Adviser Gloria
Tan-Climaco; she
was, after all, present during the Nextel creation, being the investment banker that
facilitated the deal.

from www.inq7.net

URL: http://www.inq7.net/bus/2002/may/24/text/bus_6-1-p.htm

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