DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: BT and Vodafone AirTouch have increased their stakes in Spain's number-two wireless company, Airtel.</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: The deal ends months of battling between the two companies. Janet Guyon, of "Fortune" magazine, joins us now from London. Janet, any real surprise here that these two companies have teamed up?</s>JANET GUYON, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, "FORTUNE": Well, it is a little bit surprising, because they have been fighting with each other and there was talk for a while that BT might actually sellout. But under this agreement, the two companies have agreed to gradually increase their stakes in Airtel, which is Spain's mobile phone company, so that eventually Vodafone would own 55 percent of the company and BT would have 45 percent of the company. At that point, they would restructure the board so that they have equal representation on the board. So it is actually a way for these companies to avoid a lot of legal battles between them and come to an agreement on how to jointly run the Spanish mobile phone company.</s>MARCHINI: Where else do we think we are going to see Vodafone expanding?</s>GUYON: Well, Vodafone, as we know, has been a very aggressive company, quadrupling its size in the last 18 months. They still have -- although they control about 10 percent of the world market which is, there are 500 million mobile phone subscribers in the world, they still have big holes in their strategy in Latin America, in Asia, and in Europe in particular in France. In France, they have sort of a complicated agreement with Vivendi, but most people here think that eventually Vodafone will want to takeover Vivendi, and in fact, they have a standstill agreement with Vivendi until 2004. So eventually, we think that they will plug that hole here in Europe.</s>HAFFENREFFER: All right, Janet Guyon, "Fortune" magazine out of London, thanks very much. And we should note that Vodafone shares do trade here in the U.S. as ADRs; VOD the ticker symbol.
'Fortune': BT, Vodafone Expand Stakes in Spain's Wireless Firm Airtel