5,000 jobs saved as general election approaches
vnunet.com, 16 Sep 2002
The German government has bailed out mobile phone operator MobilCom, after its principal shareholder France Telecom cut off funding.
According to the Daily Telegraph, MobilCom will get €400m (£250m), with €320m (£200m) coming from a regional public bank and €80m (£50m) from a federal development bank.
But the paper reported German economy minister Werner Mueller as insisting that France Telecom "still had obligations" to the German operator.
MobilCom said last week that it needed at least $194m to continue for six months and to restructure its operations.
France Telecom currently owns 28.5 per cent of MobilCom and is reluctant to put up more cash.
The move should help protect around 5,500 jobs in Germany in the week running up to the country's general election.
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