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Euronews: Big Hitters Back $12.5B Mobile Bid

June 18, 2012 | Ray Le Maistre |

British mobile giant Everything Everywhere Ltd., ADVA Optical Networking, ZTE Corp. and, inevitably, Nokia Corp. feature in today's regional roundup.

  • Everything Everywhere, the joint venture of T-Mobile (UK) and Orange UK, is believed to be negotiating a potential £8 billion (US$12.5 billion) takeover by private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), reports the Press Association, citing multiple sources. Mobile industry big hitters Arun Sarin, the former CEO of Vodafone Group plc, and Tom Alexander, who quit as CEO of Everything Everywhere in July 2011, are believed to be leading KKR's negotiating team. The sale of Everything Everywhere, the U.K.'s largest mobile operator with more than 27 million customers, would help the balance sheets of its parent companies, Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom SA. (See Euronews: FT's Q1 Suffers Free Fall, Data Drives Q1 Growth for Everything Everywhere, Euronews: Deutsche Telekom to Bail Out of UK?, CEO Quits Everything Everywhere and Sarin Steps Down as Vodafone CEO.)

  • The Amsterdam Internet Exchange B.V. (AMS-IX) is ADVA's first announced 100Gbit/s customer, giving hope to those vendors that are peddling non-coherent 100Gbit/s metro transport systems. (See ADVA Makes 100G Debut.)

  • The latest blow for Nokia comes from Fitch Ratings Ltd., which says it will take a negative rating action against the Finnish mobile handset giant unless it can start generating positive cash flow soon. The announcement follows the decision by Moody's Investors Service to cut Nokia's credit rating to "junk." Nokia has just announced a massive restructuring program that has prompted speculation regarding its future. (See Nokia Cuts 10,000 Jobs, Restructures, Nokia Poll: Microsoft Merger Expected and Euronews: Market Ponders Nokia's Future.)

  • ZTE is feeling the heat in a depressed European marketplace, reports China Daily.

    — Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading



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