Tokyo Electric Power Co. is studying a plan to sell off subsidiary Fusion Communications Corp., an Internet protocol telephony service company, to major cable music broadcaster Usen Corp., sources said Wednesday.
Tepco aims to part with most of the 54 percent stake it holds in Fusion and is trying to work out an appropriate sale price, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, a Usen official said nothing definite has been decided.
If the transaction goes through, Usen's IP phone operation, which is run through subsidiary MEDiA K.K., might stand to grow while Usen could expect a boost between its own fiber-optics network-based Internet access service targeted at condominiums and the expanded IP phone service.
Fusion was established by the former Nissho Iwai Corp. in 2000 before the major trading house merged with the former Nichimen Corp. in April 2004 to form Sojitz Corp.
Fusion subsequently became a subsidiary of PoweredCom Inc., a group firm of Tepco. PoweredCom was later sold off to KDDI Corp. as Tepco began scaling down its telecommunications operations. The power utility has been looking for a buyer for Fusion.