Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom Dispute Austrian Court Ruling

Vivendi SA and Deutsche Telekom AG both claimed victory Tuesday in their long-running dispute over ownership of Polish mobile network PTC before the Austrian courts.

Vivendi said the Dec. 18 decision by Austria's top court overturned an earlier arbitration panel ruling that had sought to annul the agreement underpinning its earlier joint venture with Poland's Elektrim.

Beginning in 1999, Vivendi invested a total of more than 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in the venture set up to control PTC through a 51 percent stake.

In a statement, Vivendi said the court ruling had "definitively and unambiguously" sided with its demand that Deutsche Telekom return either the cash or the shares Vivendi originally bought in PTC. The German telecommunications operator now claims to own 97 percent of PTC, whose full name is Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa.

But Deutsche Telekom spokesman Andreas Leigers rejected Vivendi's interpretation of the ruling, and said the top Austrian court had found in his company's favor.

"The Vienna arbitration ruling has been confirmed in full and is effective," Leigers said. "The position of Deutsche Telekom has been confirmed."

Both companies' statements were issued after court offices in Vienna closed for the day.

Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom have already taken their extremely complex wrangle over PTC to courts and arbitration hearings in London, Warsaw and the United States.

In October, Vivendi filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile subsidiary in Seattle -- home to T-Mobile's U.S. headquarters -- under a little-used racketeering law designed to combat organized crime.

AP