Sky Link In Talks To Buy Qualcomm's Platform Brew

MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russian telecommunications operator ZAO Sky Link said Friday that it's close to signing a deal with Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) to buy its Brew platform.

Raisa Rozinova, chief executive of Sky Link, said that the content part of the Brew platform will be launched by Sky Link network in early 2005.

Brew is a platform for wireless operators offering content, video, information and other services via mobile phones and compact computers.

"We are currently in talks with Qualcomm over the price we will have to pay for Brew," she said.

Rozinova said that there is a very limited number of content providers in Russia, but she hopes that as Sky Link increases its network, more Russian content providers will emerge.

Sky Link receives 10% of its revenue from mobile Internet in its richest market of Moscow. According to the company's most conservative forecasts, the revenue share of content will be over 15% by 2009 in all of Russia, considering that the users in the regions provide lower revenues.

Sky Link is co-owned by AFK Sistema (AFK.YY) and OAO Telecominvest (TCIV.YY).

Company Web site: http://www.skylink.ru

-By Anna Ivanova-Galitsina, Dow Jones Newswires; 7095-974-8055; anna.galitsina@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 24th December 2004