China Mobile boss Wang Jianzhou is still hopeful of a deal with Apple, but believes China’s domestic market offers more scope than foreign acquisitions.
The chairman and CEO of China’s biggest carrier said in an interview with Chinese website Sina.com that the biggest obstacle to an iPhone deal was the lack of a TD-SCDMA product.
Wang said China Mobile began discussions with Apple at the time the first iPhone was released three years ago. He said the company had been deterred by the exclusivity deal Apple had signed with Unicom, but now it was looking for an iPhone compatible with Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network.
“Both sides believe we can find a suitable way to solve these problems,” he said.
Interviewed at a business event in South Africa, Wang said that China Mobile was focused on emerging markets M&As because of the greater opportunities, and had been looking at possible African acquisitions since 2005.
“To now we haven’t reached any investment agreements. The reasons for this are many-sided, but because with mergers and takeovers we still need to look at… every aspect, including the price to pay, and so on.”