BRIEFCASE.Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services Mobile phone use mushrooms GENEVA -- Largely because of the mobile phone boom in developing countries, telephone service has quadrupled in the past decade to 4 billion lines worldwide, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report Tuesday from the U.N. telecommunications agency. The International Telecommunications Union See ITU. (body, standard) International Telecommunications Union - (ITU) ITU-T, the telecommunication standardisation sector of ITU, is responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data (including fax) communications systems for PTTs and suppliers. counts 1.27 billion fixed lines and 2.68 billion mobile accounts. The total number of people represented by those figures is unclear because many people, particularly in industrial countries, have both kinds of service. The increase has been especially strong in developing countries that have been able to provide cellular phone service to tens of millions of people much more cheaply than having to wire up homes and offices for fixed-line telephones. As a result, 61 percent of the world's mobile subscribers are in developing countries, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, Switzerland, www.itu.ch) A telecommunications standards body that is under the auspices of the United Nations. Comprising more than 185 member countries, the ITU sets standards for global telecom networks. said. China and India, for example, together added almost 200 million mobile subscribers to the global total in the first three months of this year. Home Depot The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box buying its stock ATLANTA -- The Home Depot Inc. said Tuesday it expects to repurchase 289.6 million of its shares for $10.7 billion as a result of a tender offer, a little less than halfway toward its goal of buying back $22.5 billion in stock. Preliminary results of the tender offer that ended Friday indicated the nation's biggest home improvement store chain expects to repurchase the shares at $37 per share, using about $8 billion in net proceeds Net Proceeds The amount received after all costs are deducted from the sale of a piece of property or security. Notes: In the case of an investor selling a security, net proceeds represent the proceeds from the sale minus any trading costs (i.e. commissions). from its sale of HD Supply and $2.7 billion in cash, said spokeswoman Paula Drake. Drake said the final results will be released next week. Thornburg uses loans as security NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Thornburg Mortgage again sought a buffer from turmoil in the mortgage market, borrowing $1.44 billion and using a pool of home loans as collateral. The loan deal was made in tandem Adv. 1. in tandem - one behind the other; "ride tandem on a bicycle built for two"; "riding horses down the path in tandem" tandem with Thornburg's $500 million sale last week of a special class of stock, which allowed the lender to resume financing home loans. That followed a $20.5 billion sale last month of the Santa Fe Santa Fe, city, Argentina Santa Fe, city (1991 pop. 341,000), capital of Santa Fe prov., NE Argentina, a river port near the Paraná, with which it is connected by canal. , N.M.-based mortgage lender's most valuable investments, at a loss of $930 million. Finding new ways to raise cash become a matter of survival for home lenders. Like many in the industry, Thornburg Mortgage Inc. had relied on financing arrangements like asset-backed commercial paper, repurchase financing and warehouse credit. |
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