Shareholders back PLDT’s Digitel purchase

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) yesterday announced that it has gained shareholder approval for its planned acquisition of Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc (Digitel). The deal still needs regulatory approval before being ratified, but Dow Jones Newswires quotes PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan as saying: ‘To return PLDT, and indeed the entire industry, to the path of growth, we cannot be doing more of the same…We needed to change the game.’ The proposed takeover has been criticised by PLDT’s main rival Globe Telecom which is looking to block it.