(Updates with GSMA announcement of cancellation)
By Isla Binnie, Mathieu Rosemain and Douglas Busvine
MADRID/PARIS/BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The Mobile World
Congress tech conference has been cancelled after several major
companies pulled out over coronavirus fears, the GSMA
telecoms association said on Wednesday.
"With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in
Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC
Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the
coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances,
make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event,” John
Hoffman, the CEO of organiser GSMA, said in a statement.
The announcement followed a GSMA meeting to discuss the
issue, after companies including Deutsche Telekom,
Vodafone, BT and Nokia said earlier
they would not be attending.
(Writing by Jessica Jones; Additional reporting by Supantha
Mukherjee, Joan Faus, Can Sezer, Tarmo Virki, Stephanie Nebehay,
Carolyn Cohn and Noor Zainab Hussein; editing by Keith Weir,
Elaine Hardcastle and Chizu Nomiyama)
Vodafone (VOD)
BT (BT.A)
