Staff Reporter

Im not interested in being the richest man in Britain he says.

Maybe money was important to me 10 years ago as a measure of success. But money doesnt motivate me at all any more. What motivates me now is getting satisfaction from using it for better things.

It seems to be as simple as that. Moving into his 50s and with more cash than he will ever need Stokes most famous businessman has realised that his next challenge lies not with selling more mobile phones accessories and connections but in establishing his legacy.

I want to use my money to make a difference to society. If I dont do something like that before I die I will have failed. I could run the business for another 10 years and sell it for 5 billion. And if I made a load more what would I do with it? Ive done a lot for my charity. I can do a lot more. Running the charity properly will be a full business in its own right. Now its all about actually spending the money rather than creating it.

Clearly the decision to sell up was not made lightly however.

Two years ago I began getting more satisfaction out of the charity work. I want to do a lot more charity work. Ive got some big plans to really help children far more dramatically.

What do I want more money for? Im really not interested in being the richest man in Britain or being high up the Sunday Times Rich List.

Well and good. But why not keep the business as a cash generator for the charity work and a heritage for his children and grandchildren?

The answer is fairly straightforward – none of his kids wants it.

If my children had wanted to be involved in the business I would have been a lot keener to keep it. But none of them is that way inclined. They are all artistic and all into singing and acting. If my children had the will and ability to carry on running the business it would have influenced my decision.

So why was November 9s announcement that the business was to be sold in its entirety significant? Wasnt the cat let out of the bag three months earlier when the Sunday Times revealed that Caudwell had appointed NM Rothschild to sell the organisation?

The earlier announcement never mentioned a sale. It was a response to the press finding out about the review. All I answered was that we had appointed Rothschilds to look at a strategic review.

During that strategic review I decided to sell the whole business. Things are in their absolute infancy.

We put the business up for sale on the back of extremely strong interest and after being barraged with enquiries as to what was going on. The workforce and our customers all wondered what was going on.

Ah. But theres no buyer yet.

So isnt it much ado about very little until the cheque clears? After all he may still be running the company a year from now.

Hasnt he played his hand too openly and early and unsettled the workforce?

The employees understand I am sincere in my objectives to sell in its entirety. They understand I want to protect their jobs and indeed 99 per cent of jobs are secure.

The private equity partner investor that takes over will be looking to maximise growth grow jobs and motivate people.

Nothing is going to change apart from the name above the door. I have already made a big virtue of the fact that the workforce and strength of management are a fundamental part of this offer and a fundamental reason for them to buy it. This is a fantastic business going like a steam train in the right direction. lt needs more investment in the management team not less. Any new owner who doesnt understand that will fail.

The Caudwell Group was forged out of the iron will and take-no-prisoners attitude of its founder.

Once he steps aside will the company not lose its driving force and become just another anonymous corporation run by the gray men in their ivory towers?

Yes Ive been responsible for the growth and setting of that culture over 18 years. But I now have phenomenally strong teams. They are complete self-starters who dont need my input. They need someone who has the same interests they do to drive each of their businesses forward.

OK. So the strength of the management team is the lure for a prospective purchaser. Whats the guarantee they will stay on under new ownership? Financial lock-ins?

The existing management team is well-motivated and well-remunerated. Talk of a lock-in is not the right terminology.

What Ive provided for all senior management is a fantastic opportunity to run their own businesses. That motivation will outlast me. Any private equity house will devote a percentage of growth of business to further the development of the management and will give senior people double the opportunities.

He is fairly sure that a trade buyer is unlikely. There would be many conflicting elements within the group for sale to another mobile network retailer telco or distributor. Carphone Warehouse is the only contender with the financial muscle and has already confirmed it will not be a bidder. Besides it is impossible to imagine that Charles Dunstone and John Caudwell could ever agree on a fair price.

The alternative of a stock market flotation was never considered.

A flotation would have left me worse off than I am now he says.

One of my main motivations is to have time to do things I want to do. Given that this is a big motivation and given that a public offering needs lots of cash why would I want to put pressure on myself to prepare the business for a public offering and remain in my current position?

One thing is for sure. This story will run for months. The fat lady is still on her way to the opera hall.

Orange Film will be available in 34 cinemas across 23 different cities. Partners already signed up include CinemaPRO Hollywood Multiplex Bucuresti Mall Movieplex Cinema Plaza Romania and RADEF RomaniaFilm.

More than six million Orange users in Romania will have access to this promotion said Orange director of strategy and insight Adhish Kulkarni.

Many dealers have yet to break into the B2B market said Mainline head of marketing Gail Hollinshead.

Mainline deals with 46000 SME customers and sells around 185000 handsets a year. Mainline Business Mobile dealer account manager Jo Love said: We want to specialise in B2B and this helps spread the word to dealers.

Workshops are free although there is a refundable 100 deposit.

The move follows a spat with the Advertising Standards Authority over adverts directed at children (see Mobile News issue 349). The Jamster First service allows parents to cap spending to 6 a month. It has also established a hotline for parents to get help on organising their kids budgets.

The service is based on individual purchases and is not bound by a subscription. Jamster First is an extension of the companys Guardian service which allows parents to block downloads to a specific mobile number.

Jamster COO Markus Berger-de-Leon said: Our products appeal to individuals of various ages and we recognise the need to help bill-payers control how much their family spend on mobile content.

From this month new customers signing up to Video Talk &Text 350 700 and 1100 will receive 10 worth of downloads for the first three months of their contract compared with the previous offer of 5.

Customers can choose to spend their 10 a month on whatever they want. For example 10 would buy 20 Barclays Premiership highlights videos two games to download and keep or four ringtones or wallpapers.

As part of the networks Christmas pre-pay promotion all new customers will receive 30 of pre-loaded credit on their handset with 60 days to use it. Pre-pay customers who port their number to 3 will also receive a 10 top-up voucher.

3 is also introducing two new all-cash vouchers worth 10 and 20. Once activated customers can use them on any of 3s communication entertainment and information services. The vouchers also have no expiry date but must be activated within 90 days of purchase.

3 UK COO Gareth Jones said: Our new pay-as-you-go vouchers mean for the first time on 3 you can top up just 10 and use the all-cash value whenever you want. With double downloads were offering contract customers the best of our entertainment services when they sign up to a new contract.

Jones said 3 would continue to offer three months half-price line rental on selected price plans throughout November.

Vodafone has struck a deal with Universal Music Group International which includes Eminem U2 and Gwen Stefani on its roster.

3 said it would premier Madonnas latest single Hung Up on the back of its tie-up with Warner Music.

3 CEO Bob Fuller said: 3G mobiles mean that record labels can make money from videos which were traditionally only promotional material.

Vodafone said it expected to make over 100000 new audio downloads available from its Vodafone live! portal within a matter of weeks boosting the overall catalogue to over 600000 tracks.

Vodafone global terminal and consumer marketing director Guy Laurence said: We know our customers will enjoy the benefit.

Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said: We have a good business in Sweden but the industry structure and regulatory environment mean it makes more sense for our customers our employees and our shareholders for a player like Telenor to own the company.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.

The sale follows Vodafones acquisition of 10 per cent of Indian mobile phone giant Bharti Tele-Ventures for 820 million. The deal means that Vodafone is able to tap into a largely nascent market in the fourth largest economy in the world.

We are entering a relationship with a major company which shares our vision and values and understands the enormous potential of mobile telephony in society said Sarin.

See Business Watch page 16

The adjudication follows a similar complaint brought by O2 over Vodafones claim for call success rate superiority in September (see Mobile News issue 350).

The ad headlined The best call success rate ever cited figures from an Oftel report spanning April to September 2003 which showed O2 had a call success rate of 99.2 per cent. The ad featured a birds eye-view of a city with high-rise buildings signifying full signal bars.

The complainants claimed that the data was not comparative that the data was out of date and that the ad was misleading by implying that the figures had been officially published by Oftel.

While the ASA granted that O2 had used data that was independent and comparative and did not think that the imagery used implied that O2 had a stronger signal than that of other operators it objected to the age of the data noting that other operators could claim even better success rates using the same methodology more recently.

The ASA concluded that superiority claims on call success rates can be misleading because the methods of measurement are not precise enough to justify an unquestionable claim.

Nokia UK group business director of multimedia Andrew Connell said: We are expanding our channel model not breaking it. We have a trial under way at Jessops which will stock the N70 N80 and N90. We will look at the results in January. The fact that they are being sold on contract makes them much more affordable.

Connell added: We are in discussions with high street music stores now. If you look at where the Apple iPod was stocked last year most of the mobile phone retailers had it because of the margin available on it. The N91 holds 3000 tracks and it has better sound quality than the iPod.

Nokia is looking to bundle the N91 with high quality headsets and speaker systems from the likes of Sennheiser and JBC next year.

Music will be our second focus said Connell then smart applications such as consumer e-mail. So we will also look to stock Nokia devices in computer outlets.

JAG managing director John George revealed that he would know by today (November 18) whether or not a deal for the stores could be completed. JAG is already supplying stock and promotional material to a dozen KJC outlets.

George said: We are trying to do a deal for between 10 and 15 stores but we are dealing with administrators and unhappy landlords so it is unclear at the moment when it will go through. I hope to make an announcement on Friday.

He added: The sites we are interested in are not necessarily the best-performing ones in the big towns. They are located in smaller towns and have no crossover with our own footprint. But they are active stores with staff. We want to take over the stores and re-employ the same staff.

KJC went into administration in April. It has 29 stores though four of those have closed down in the last few months. KJC parent company Calipso Communications was unavailable for comment.

JAG has 71 retail outlets at present. It acquired the Communications Centre retail chain in June and southwest rival West Talk in May last year.

Meanwhile Paignton-based dealership Intek has taken over a KJC store in St Austell Cornwall taking its total number of stores to 25.

Intek managing director Manny Hussain said: We are continuing with organic growth. We are not in direct negotiations with KJC. We will look at the sites when the landlords start to market them.

Intek is currently negotiating five other leases in the South West with a view of opening up stores in the next few months.