French construction and telecommunications group Bouygues, has offered €10.5 billion cash for Vivendi’s SFR unit, setting up a bidding war with billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice group and potentially creating a phone carrier to rival Orange. Bouygues said its offer, which includes assets at the Bouygues Telecom unit and is fully backed by financing from HSBC, […]
Telecom Italia Media has posted a narrower net loss of €132 million in 2013 after the sale of two loss-making television channels. The company, which had posted a loss of 241 million euros in 2012, sold the La 7 and MTV channels in April and September 2013 respectively. Telecom Italia Media, which is in talks […]
Saying that it has learned a lot from its existing gigabit Internet Google Fiber projects, Google has invited cities in nine metro areas around the US – 34 cities altogether – to work with it to explore the possibility of bringing the service to those locations. In a blog post, Milo Medin, VP, Google Access […]
Eutelsat’s CEO Michel de Rosen told analysts early on February 14th that the closing (on January 1st) of its purchase of the Mexico-based SatMex fleet of satellites would lead to a “significant upscaling” of its business over Latin America. De Rosen said the Mexican deal meant and extra $70 million in revenues this half-year, and […]
Global telco Vodafone has tabled a €7 billion bid for Spanish cable MSO ONO, according to reports in the UK and Spain. It is understood the cableco will discuss the offer at a Board meeting February 11th. The move follows Vodafone’s €7.7 billion acquisition of German cable MSO Kabel Deutschland in September 2013. At the […]
BT’s sales and profits have risen, driven by record broadband demand and its new sports channels. The telco reported pre-tax profits of £617 million for the last three months of 2013, on revenues of £4.6 billion. BT has moved aggressively into the TV sport business, taking on rival Sky, and now has 2.5 million customers […]
Com Hem backer BC Partners is looking towards an IPO for the operator, according to reports. Discussions between Com Hem and the London private-equity firm are said to be at an early stage, with BC yet to appoint advisers to manage a possible sale. Com Hem named Andrew Barron, former CEO of Virgin Media, as […]
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has vacated (overturned) the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ‘net neutrality’ rules in the case of Verizon v. FCC. At the heart of the issue was whether the FCC had authority to prohibit broadband Internet Service Providers such as Verizon or Comcast or others from […]
Trade body Cable Europe has welcomed moves by the European Union to create an integrated single digital and telecoms market, but warned that the new legislation should complement and not overturn the existing regulatory framework. In a statement, Cable Europe noted that European Heads of States have given their green light for EU action in […]
Belgacom, Belgium’s dominant telco, has appointed Dominique Leroy as chief executive of the company, which is 53.5 per cent state-owned. Leroy has been executive vice president of the Consumer Business Unit of Belgacom since June 2012. She joined Belgacom as vice president sales for the Consumer Business Unit in October 2011, following 24 years at […]