STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan. 14, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- TeliaSonera has today confirmed Yahoo! Inc has exercised its option to sell back to TeliaSonera the original investment of 15 percent equity interest of Sonera Zed Ltd, that was granted in 2002. The transaction is made with the same terms as in 2002.
Zed is a leading provider of entertainment, communications and information services for mobile devices. Yahoo! announced in August 2002 it had acquired 15 percent of Zed along with the right, but not obligation, to acquire the remaining interests in Zed not held by Yahoo!, over a two year period, or to withdraw from the transaction. Yahoo! and Zed will maintain their commercial agreement to provide co- branded mobile services, including ring tones and Java games, across Europe.
The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
"We will continue to source another investor for Zed, which is not included in TeliaSonera's core operations. Zed has demonstrated strong growth recently with a positive EBITDA and nearly doubled sales in 2003, which makes it a very interesting investment opportunity," said Kim Ignatius, CFO of TeliaSonera.
Zed provides entertainment, communication and information services for mobile devices via direct relationships with 17 operators in six countries. As of September 2003, Zed had an average of 5 million active customers per month, who execute approximately 35 million commercial transactions per month. Zed's suite of products includes ring tones, logos, picture messages, games, chat, sports, directory, stock quotes, traffic reports, pranks, horoscopes, news, finance, movie guides, currency converters, and restaurant guides. Zed was launched and started in Finland in October 1999. Zed has undergone a heavy restructuring during 2001 and has 170 employees.
For further information journalists can contact: TeliaSonera's Press Service +46-(0)8-713 58 30 Yahoo! Europe, Sue Jackson suej@europe.yahoo-inc.com + 44 207 808 4526
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in the press release relating to future status or circumstances, including future performance and other trend projections are forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements due to many factors, many of which are outside the control of TeliaSonera.
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