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March 29, 2011

PLDT buys majority stake of Sun Cellular

The biggest IT story of the day is PLDT’s acquisition of Digitel which operates Sun Celluar, the 3rd largest telco player in the Philippines.

PLDT, which owns Smart Comm., becomes a much bigger operator and strengthening it’s number 1 spot in the country.

The Philippine Long Distance Telephone company announced today its acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines, Inc. (Digitel) from JG Summit amounting to Php74.1 billion or 51.55% shares in exchange of new PLDT assets worth 2,500 per share.

Digitel, which owns Sun Cellular, announced that under the new leadership the paired networks will continue to the expansion of broadband rollout and other next generation technologies in both fixed and wired services. {source: PhilStar}

PLDT says Sun Cellular will remain a separate entity and retain the brand. Smart already surpassed 45 million subscribers in 2010 while Sun Cellular, which has over 16 million subs, was already inching closer to Globe Telecom (26.5 million).

Smart’s rapid growth and expansion requires more wider frequency and that might have prompted the Sun Cellular buy-out. At the same time, Sun Cellular has become a large player in terms of post-paid subscribers (even the first one to reach 1 million). Meanwhile, Smart has only around 500k postpaid subscribers while Globe has around 900k.

From having 3 large celco players, we now have just 2 — Smart at far #1 and Globe at a minority #2.

Merging Smart & Sun not good for consumers?
NTC hearing on PLDT-Digitel deal on May 23
Casiño charges NTC under telco's payroll

55 Responses to “PLDT buys majority stake of Sun Cellular”

  1. Les says:

    Naninawala ba kayo na hindi kaya tapatan ng Smart ang mga offers ng Sun… greedy lang talaga yan si MVP! Halos lahat ng kumpanya binibili.

    Pasalamat tayo sa Sun, dahil sa kanila na tigil ang pataasan ng presyo ng Globe and Smart!

  2. simplynice93
    Twitter:
    says:

    Bakit maraming negative comments? Wala pa namang ginagawa ang PLDT to affect Sun Cellular’s services. Act appropriately guys..

  3. wreek888 says:

    I hope MVP will also buy abs cbn.

  4. JohhnyBilyar says:

    We no longer have a market neutralizer. Too bad for us. The subscriber base of Sun are those fed up customers of Smart & Globe.

    Now we just have to live with it.

  5. ngernger says:

    In a statement MVP assured that the unli services of sun will be retained. It should benefit SUN kasi it is now backed by SMART’s infra.

    May paparating naman ata na telco from SMC, so let’s wait and see. :D

  6. agrimensor says:

    This maybe in preparation for the new player as ngernger pointed out.One of our lot which was leased by Nextel is being negotiated by SMC for their cellsite. So tuloy na tuloy na to.

  7. Erick Garcia says:

    Now what? Di paba sila nabubusog sa pagka “GIANT”? Come on! Since PLDT is the majority holder, they now have the financial control and influence over SUN and I’m not liking it.

  8. Ismaeldelacruz says:

    Pati sana Bayantel bilin na ni pangilinan para makatikim naman ng maganda serbisyo mga subs ni bayantel. Me backbone din to nationwide din (TelicPhil)

  9. daniel says:

    it shows how smart MVP really is! haha GO SMART 55 millions subscriber? hahahahahhahaha grabe ang adik ng PLDT LOL! proud to be witht the LARGEST! hahaha

  10. dane says:

    fault din ng subscribers ito kasi d ntin gaano n embrace ung product ng sun….

  11. [...] on May 23 Tweet PLDT‘s acquisition of Digitel is still in the works and is not final (see original story here). NTC has yet to approve of this sale before it pushes thru. As such, the commission has set a [...]

  12. [...] acquisition of Digitel is still in the works and is not final (see original story here). NTC has yet to approve of this sale before it pushes thru. As such, the commission has set a [...]

  13. gukoson says:

    there’s a flying news that globe will be tied up with international carriers soon be here in Philippines.. that would beat up smart and sun…

  14. [...] Back in March, PLDT announced it has agreed to buy majority of Digitel (which includes Sun Cellular) in a share-swap deal. We asked people if they think the Smart+Sun merger, of sorts, will improve the carrier’s service and offerings (see story here). [...]

  15. jordan says:

    smart sucks.. their website crushes a lot kaya hindi ako makapag-unli sa plug-it internet. Their customer service is not even close to satisfactory. laging hindi matawagan. tas super bagal ng kanilang internet kahit full bar na 3G signal… Globe is a little better..

  16. metal1369 says:

    give it a few years and then SUN will set permanently only smart and globe will remain.
    habang mainit pa ang balita kukumbinsihin tayo na sun will remain as is.
    but in the coming years, unti unti na mawawala ang sun cellular, until it will just be a memory that once there was neutralizer between globe and smart.

  17. Geo says:

    I don’t agree that SMART and SUN will merge… eh kaya ng HARI ng UNLIMITED ang SUN eh kasi SILA ang nauna pagdating sa UNLIMITED… and take note kung wala sila baka UNTIL NOW di pa NAUSO ang UNLIMITED… Its time para magtipid… kaya mag SUN NA KAYO!!!

  18. RACAS says:

    PLDT and Smart’s acquisition of Sunbroadband is a disaster to the sun subscribers. PLEASE BAN, BOYCOTT these companies. I am a sun subscriber for 3 years now and when they merged…..it was BAD WORST to NO connection. Then they said they were upgrading the system. Pfft!!! Liars!!! For months now, after they took over, they cheat me all the time in billing and connection. Headaches. Don’t be fooled by their advertisement “Fast and reliable!” pfft!!! Sun now is slow and unreliable, thanks to the bad business of PLDT and Smart. Go to hell all of you!!!! The worst thing is I have to endure them because I’m under contract. Do you think you can cheat your way all the time? Your still alive but your are already rotting in hell. Theyre the devil in the flesh. Oh please add MERALCO in the list of worst company of all time.

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Abe is the founder and publisher of YugaTech. You Can follow him on Twitter @abeolandres.

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