Koninklijke PTT Nederland NV plans to bundle its multimedia activities in a new venture, PTT Multimedia BV, which will be launched on January 1: it will be equally owned by the postal and phone sides, and will use the parent’s telecommunications network to integrate images, data and speech, possibly in co-operation with other companies; it will will concentrate on the Dutch market in the first place, but intends to develop throughout Europe, and will subsume existing PTT interests in multimedia, including a 50% stake in the interactive teletext company Teleworld, jointly-owned with Philips Media; and the 19.5% stake held in Videotext Nederland on-line network; PTT Nederland also says it plans to buy cable companies in other European countries, and is in preliminary talks with cable companies in Eastern Europe, with eastern Germany and the Czech Republic top of the list, with other Eastern European countries and western Germany and France under consideration; it has a 76.7% stake in cable television operator Casema, which controls 22% of cable connections in Holland; it plans to sell its majority stake in Casema, possibly through a joint venture, but intends to maintain a sizeable share of market.
