DDI Corp., KDD Corp. and IDO Corp., which are to merge to form KDDI in October, are considering spinning off their respective cellular phone businesses and integrating them under a cellphone subsidiary to be established in November, sources close to the firm said Monday.
The three firms are also considering a future listing of the subsidiary, which will be named "au" in accordance with the integrated brand name for the three telecom companies' cellphones, the sources added.
By integrating nationwide cellphone businesses under the au umbrella, KDDI hopes to make its operations more efficient and to catch up with NTT DoCoMo Inc., according to the sources.