South Africa's MTN said it had failed to reach a deal in talks with India's Reliance Communications. Reliance said in May it had entered into exclusive merger talks with MTN Group. "Owing to certain legal and regulatory issues, the parties are unable to conclude a transaction," MTN Group said in a statement posted on the web site of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. "Accordingly, it has been mutually decided to allow the exclusivity agreement to lapse." More here.
2. Micorsoft's web ad business rocky
Shares of Microsoft sank more than 5%, a day after the company missed Wall Street's earnings forecast by a penny, and issued softer-than-expected guidance for the current first quarter, an Associated Press report said. Microsoft cited weakness in the online business, which makes most of its money from web advertising, the report said. More here.
3. US investors team up to bid for Huawei unit
US private equity firms Silver Lake and Providence Equity Partners have teamed up to bid for a stake in a unit of China's Huawei Technologies, a Reuters report said. The Reuters report, citing sources involved in the process, also said the deal could fetch more than $2 billion. Another team is AEA Investors, a mid-sized private equity firm, and General Atlantic, according to one source involved in the process. More here.
4. Bharti Airtel profit soars in Q1
Bharti Airtel' first-quarter net profit increased by a better-than-expected 34%, as subscriptions rose in the world's fastest-growing wireless market, an AFP report said.
Net profit for the three months to June was 20.25 billion rupees ($470 million) from 15.12 billion rupees ($358 million) for the same period a year ago, the report said. Revenues climbed 44 % to 84.83 billion rupees ($2 billion). "On the mobile side, monthly customer adds crossed the 2.5 million mark in the quarter," Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement. "This demonstrates the Indian telecom growth story is intact, with the rural markets witnessing strong uptake," he said.
The company added a record 7.5 million customers during the quarter, the most ever in a single three-month period. The customer base jumped 61% to 70 million most of them in the mobile sector, during the quarter from the same period a year earlier.
5. Qualcomm and Nokia settle long-running dispute
The many bitter patent disputes between Qualcomm and Nokia have finally ended. The two telecom giants announced they have entered into a new 15-year patent agreement that effectively settles all litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal by Nokia of its complaint to the European Commission and numerous lawsuits filed in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Nokia filed a complaint with the EC in October 2005 with five other companies, which led to a flurry of lawsuits between Qualcomm and its rivals and several regulatory probes into Qualcomm's licensing practices. The two were also miles apart for some time when it came to renegotiating a new license agreement that expired in April 2007. More here.
RamP!
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