On November 3, the second largest phone company of Russia, “Vimpel Com” (B-Line), bought 90% of stocks, which belonged to “Armentel” CJSC and represented 40% of Armenia’s mobile service and the whole fixed telephone service. The current head of media department of the mentioned company, Yelena Prokhorova, announced that their company is interested in both of the services of Armentel – the fixed telephone service and the mobile service-and that “Vimpel Com” is not going to sell the fixed communication service. According to the Russian “Express Online” news agency, “B-Line” complains about the high prices of Armentel’s stocks and adds that in a small country like Armenia and in the conditions of extreme poverty, the company will not be able to get huge profits. “It cost a lot for Armenia to have access to Armenia.. The company has paid $440 for each subscriber of Armentel and over $1100 for the ones, who are subscribers of mobile service,” writes “Express Online”. The Russian media has been complaining about the high stock price of Armentel for a while. That was the time when all the other potential buyers of Armentel – the Indian and the Arabic consortiums-were offering more money to the Greeks than the Russian “Sistema” or “Vimpel Com”. According to one of the consultative companies of Russia, Vimpel Com will face serious problems by being integrated in a monopolistic Armentel. In this case a question comes up – if B-Line has started to criticize this transaction prior to the signature of agreement, then what’s the point of closing the deal?
