This article is more than 1 year old

French government publishes details of Thomson stakes

But they're still not talking about how much Microsoft et al are paying

The French government has released details of the sell-off of slabs of government-owned Thomson Multimedia to Alcatel, DirectTV, NEC and Microsoft, but the bottom line remains secret, apparently. The four companies are to each buy a 7.5 per cent in the ailing operation, and on Friday the French Economic Ministry filed a legal notice specifying the nature of co-operative agreements the four would run with Thomson. The actual bottom line of how much the companies are paying however remains undisclosed - one might suspect that given the state of play at Thomson, it's very little. The four 'technical, industrial and financial co-operation' agreements all seem to revolve around consumer TV and networking technologies. Alcatel will help develop digital networking technologies, DirectTV will co-operate in decoder and digital TV devices, while NEC's area will be DVD and wide-screen flat panel displays. Microsoft's contribution is interactive TV and Internet TV-related products. Microsoft itself received a quid pro quo for agreeing the investment - the company will get CE accepted as Thomson's standard for Internet via TV, and Thomson will license Microsoft WebTV-based set-top boxes for sale under the Thomson brand in Europe and RCA in the US.

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like