Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)

Assets

• NTT DoCoMo is Japan's largest cellular operator
• Network of own data centers in 31 cities around the world
• Dimension Data Holdings - System Integrator

Shares of the company are circulating on exchanges in Tokyo, New York and London.

Strategy

Although today (July 2010) NTT maintains a dominant position in the Japanese market, largely due to control over the country's largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, its position in the international market is less strong. According to NTT, now the company is primarily focused on the markets of Asia, the USA and Europe, providing telecommunications services in 159 countries.

Market konyunktura

Thanks to the strengthening of the yen compared to other currencies, Japanese companies are looking for new channels for growth in various sectors of the industry, from financial services to pharmaceuticals, writes The Wall Street Journal. In addition, the acquisition of companies in other countries should help Japanese big players compensate for the influence of the local market, which, according to experts, not only remains quite sluggish in terms of consumption, but also decreases along with the decline in the country's population.

History

2021: Investing in air taxi developer Volocopter

In early March 2021, the German developer of urban aeromobility systems Volocopter attracted an additional 200 million euros in series D financing. Among the new investors are funds managed by BlackRock, Avala Capital, Atlantia, Continental, the investment fund Jericho Capital, NTT, Tokyo Century and others. More details here.

2020

Buying NTT Docomo

At the end of September 2020, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) announced a deal following which the company will receive 100 percent control over one of Japan's largest mobile operators NTT Docomo. The value of the transaction is $40 billion. More details here.

Call for 200,000 employees to work at home

In mid-February 2020, Japan's largest telecom operator, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, called on 200 thousand of its employees to work from home to avoid travel to work at rush hour and protect themselves from coronavirus.

The company issued a notification to mobile operator NTT Docomo and regional offices. The transition of NTT employees to remote work due to the growing number of infected people may provoke similar steps in the corporate sector. Each NTT department sets its own rules for remote employee management. NTT also encouraged subsidiaries to use teleconferences instead of bringing together large groups for meetings, and insisted on the need for a medical examination of all patients.

Japan's largest telecom operator Nippon Telegraph & Telephone called on 200 thousand of its employees to work from home

It is not the first time that a telecommunications company has used remote labor of employees. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone East and NTT Data allow employees to work from home for any reason. The company's core divisions, such as Docomo and NTT Communications, also offer flexible working hours if employees work during peak hours from 10 to 15 hours. But not all departments fully use alternative work schedules, so the company has issued a separate notification.

Other companies have also responded accordingly to the threat of coronavirus. Telecommunications company Dwango has invited all its 1,000 employees to work from home. And a travel bus company from Tokyo demanded that employees wear surgical masks after a tourist bus driver in Nara prefecture picked up a coronavirus in late January. The company also installed hand disinfectant bottles on bus doors.^[1]

2019: Purchase of a stake in navigation developer Here for $1 billion

On December 20, 2019, Japanese companies NTT and Mitsubishi Motors announced the purchase of a 30th stake in Here. The value of the transaction is not indicated in the press release, but it was announced at a press conference - more than $1 billion. The amount is cited by the Financial Times, whose reporters attended this conference. More details here.

2017: Launch of the cloud quantum computing service

In November 2017, NTT announced the launch of a free service to lease the computing capacity of a quantum computer. This is the first such cloud service launched by Japanese companies.

According to Nikkei, the United States annually spends about $200 million on research and development of quantum computers, and China has declared this area one of the most important in the five-year plan for the development of science and innovation. Japan joined the race in the quantum computing market, planning to invest about 30 billion yen ($267 million) in this area over 10 years, starting in fiscal year 2018.

Quantum computer NTT

NTT is developing a research project in the field of quantum computing with the support of the state together with the National Institute of Informatics and other scientific centers. The company used a different technology compared to other developers of quantum solutions, such as Google.

NTT, using the properties of light, increased the accuracy limit of traditional quantum computing systems. The company opened public access to the quantum prototype neural network after the computer began to work steadily around the clock at room temperature. NTT is going to test its technology in various directions and connect it with the ones being developed. ON

NTT claims that the company's quantum computer is able to consume only 1 kW of energy (like household appliances) in cases where the consumption of a supercomputer can reach 10,000 kW.

Nikkei notes that Google and NTT work in different directions of quantum computing. If a Japanese company creates a product that is designed to solve more specialized problems, such as finding the closest vertices of a graph, then Google is developing a computer with more general problem solving skills. This is a more difficult task, but its solution can open up wider possibilities for application, including in the field of artificial intelligence.^[2]

2010

On July 16, 2010, NTT announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Dimension Data Holdings PLC for £2.1 billion or about $3.2 billion. The company said it will pay 120 pence for each Dimension Data share, which is 18% higher than the price of one stock on the stock exchange. According to a joint statement by NTT and Dimension Data Holdings, the latter will focus on the development and management of technology systems for NTT customers, complementing the operator's services in building telecommunications infrastructure. NTT representatives said they expect this transaction to be completed by the end of October 2010. Dimension Data will continue to operate separately even after the acquisition of NTT. Significant opposition to this transaction by antitrust authorities is not expected.

Notes