Pacific Century CyberWorks Signs Telstra Deal

Asian media mogul Richard Li signed a long-anticipated agreement linking his company, Pacific Century CyberWorks, with Australia’s Telstra Corp. in an Internet and telecommunications alliance. As part of the deal, PCCW will receive an immediate $3.55-billion cash payment, which is expected to be used to reduce a mountain of debt run up by the company during a string of recent acquisitions. The accord was nearly struck last month but stalled amid reports Telstra wanted better terms after PCCW’s stock price had lost almost two-thirds of its value over the summer. The deal establishes three joint ventures, one forming a global Internet protocol backbone that they said would be the world’s third-largest carrier of voice traffic. A second would build a regional network of Internet data centers and a third would establish the Asia Pacific’s first regional mobile telephone company.