Back to press releasesNewark, NJ and London UK, January 23, 2003 – IDT Europe announced today that it has completed its acquisition of the Global One pre-paid phone card business from France Telecom. The deal increases IDT Europe’s regional presence by up to 40% immediately, positions IDT Europe to become Europe’s leading phone card operator and provides a solid platform for continued expansion in territories across the Continent. IDT Europe is a division of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT.B, IDT), a multinational carrier, telephone and technology company.
IDT Europe is the leading pre-paid phone card provider in The UK, The Netherlands and Spain. The company has expanded throughout Europe this year, most recently opening retail operations in France, Italy and Portugal. Through the Global One acquisition, it is adding Norway, Denmark and Switzerland to its footprint, and augmenting its existing operation in Sweden.
IDT Europe is already planning to accelerate its expansion during 2003 by moving into Greece and throughout Eastern Europe. This European strategy mirrors IDT Corporation’s leadership in the US phone card market – built through the same blend of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
“This is a landmark deal for IDT and IDT Europe and confirmation that we are quickly becoming the continent’s leading phone card provider,” said Jim Courter, IDT Corporation’s CEO and Vice Chairman. “IDT’s successful expansion throughout Europe is critical to the company’s mission to make high quality and affordable telecommunications services available to people all around the globe.”
IDT Europe plans to co-brand the Global One products for an initial six-month period, then migrate the entire Global One phone card range into its existing product portfolio of more than 60 individual phone cards.
“The combination of IDT Europe and Global One’s operations and plans for European expansion are an ideal fit, offering tremendous synergy,” said Marc Bodner, Managing Director of IDT Europe. “The quality of our products and commitment of our team have enabled us to grow considerably despite the downturn in the telecoms sector. IDT Europe has emerged as a significant force in the European telephony industry and integrating the Global One operations into IDT Europe will be our key focus for the next quarter.”
IDT Europe, a division of IDT Telecom, concentrates its expertise in two main product categories: retail calling cards (through IDT Phonecards Ireland Limited) and wholesale carrier services. Formed in 1998, IDT Europe has already established itself as one of the leading pre-paid card operators in Europe, offering more than 60 different phone cards in over 100,000 retail outlets. IDT Europe’s core retail and wholesale strengths have enabled the company to maintain a broad customer base while significantly enhancing gross margins and profitability.
By establishing long-term agreements with the major global carriers to interconnect IDT’s facilities with those of their foreign partners in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, IDT Europe terminates traffic to over 180 countries.
IDT Europe is headquartered in London and has offices and/or Points of Presence (POPs) in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Scandinavia. For more information please go to www.idteurope.com
IDT Corporation, through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its retail and wholesale customers worldwide. IDT Telecom, by means of its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT and Liberty Media Corporation own 95% and 5 % of IDT Telecom, respectively. IDT Media is the IDT subsidiary principally responsible for the Company’s initiatives in media, new video technologies and print media.
On January 9, 2003, IDT announced that it is changing its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbols. Effective February 26, IDT’s common stock will trade under the symbol IDT.C. Effective March 19, IDT’s Class B common stock will trade under the symbol IDT.
Through its various subsidiaries, IDT has interests in several telecom, Internet-related and media companies. IDT acquired the assets of Winstar Communications in December 2001. IDT Corporation common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT.B and IDT. As of December 12, 2002, there were about 54.1 million shares of Class B common stock (IDT.B) outstanding, and about 25.0 million shares of common stock (IDT). Of these, approximately 4.0 million shares of Class B common stock and approximately 5.4 million shares of common stock were held by IDT Corporation.
In this press release, all statements that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those in which we use the words “believe,” “anticipate,” “expect,” “plan,” “intend,” “estimate, “target” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent our current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors, including, but not limited to, those described in our most recent report on SEC Form 10-K (under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations”), which may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports on SEC Forms 10-Q and 8-K. These factors include, but are not limited to, the following: potential declines in prices for our products and services; our ability to maintain and grow our retail telecommunications services, particularly our prepaid calling card business; availability of termination capacity; financial stability of our customers; our ability to maintain carrier agreements with foreign carriers; effectiveness of our marketing and distribution efforts; increased competition, particularly from regional bell operating companies; our ability to manage our growth; competitiveness of our Winstar subsidiary; impact of government regulation; our ability to obtain telecommunications products or services required for our products and services; and general economic conditions, particularly in the telecommunications markets. We are under no obligation, and expressly disclaim any obligation, to update the forward-looking statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
