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Waiting... for what, exactly, in China?

It was one of those gambles. A source I normally trust implicitly because she's never ever got the wrong end of a stick, gave me the China Mobile scoop on Hutchison's European operations.

As a journalist, of course, you have to check this out, so I did. Every source I contacted was "unavailable" suddenly. The story felt right, and the people who were failing to answer the phone are exactly the people who would be under strict instructions to "talk to nobody!" if it was true.

It's simply too big a story to sit on, and I decided not to sit on it.

There's a small problem, of course: until such a deal is signed, sealed and announced, it can always be cancelled. And I've seen it happen. A serious risk, for NewsWireless, because there's no escape from ridicule if that happens.

One example would be the occasion IBM flew thirty odd journalists from Europe to its Yorktown Heights offices to make an announcement. We all trooped into the auditorium... to be read a bland and meaningless comment from a minor VP about... well, nothing really. And not until four years later, would anybody admit that there had been a major, major announcement about a takeover, which collapsed at the last moment.

Unfortunate for the Editor who'd got the inside scoop, and who'd run the story the day before the non-announcement...

I remember one such incident on my first paper, a trade sheet called AdWeek; the news editor was literally dancing around the office when I got in one morning. He'd just got an announcement of a big client shift (from Agency A to Agency B) which he'd written about six months earlier. Both client and agency had spent the interim six months tut-tutting about "irresponsible journalism" when, in fact, they had merely had to re-negotiate some important clauses. Now, they had to admit he'd been right all along.

But the joy of being able to say: "Told you!" is always disappointing, after the bitterness of the previous six months, with everybody laughing at you.

So far, the China Mobile takeover of "3" has not followed the predicted path. It was due to be announced yesterday, and it has not been. Worse, there's been a hoax email reported in the Hong Kong Standard,

which purported to have been issued to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, said Hutchison Whampoa would sell 15 percent of 3 Italia, the conglomerate's Italian telecommunications arm, to China Telecom for HK$9.486 billion, and that the deal would be completed by March 31 next year.

The good news: I can tell you, without reservation, that the email didn't come from anybody here at NewsWireless.

The bad news: Until we hear more, I can't tell you any more than that. Frustrating, isn't it?