Euronews: MRV to Sell Euro Assets

MRV Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: MRVC), Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) and Telefónica UK Ltd. lead the parade of today's EMEA telecom headlines.

MRV is selling off its Network Integration businesses, which are based in Europe, and retain its Optical Communications Systems (OCS) unit (Carrier Ethernet and optical gear) to continue life as a networking product vendor only. Following a review of its options that began last year, it has agreed to sell its French subsidiary, Interdata, for €14.6 million (US$17.9 million) and is in the process of striking a deal to sell Swedish subsidiary Alcadon-MRV AB for $10.5 million. MRV has also retained investment bank Headwaters BD to seek a buyer for Italian subsidiary Tecnonet S.p.A. Although the Network Integration businesses currently generate more than half of MRV's revenues, the company believes that "long-term growth prospects for the optical transport and carrier Ethernet markets" make it more worthwhile to focus on the OCS unit. The vendor also just announced second-quarter revenues of $55 million and a net loss of $2.1 million. (See MRV to Sell Assets, MRV Reports Q2 Loss of $2.1M and MRV Considers Its Exit.)

Analysts are warning that the proposed sharing of network infrastructure by Vodafone and Telefónica UK (O2) could be in line for serious and prolonged scrutiny by the competition regulators, reports the Financial Times (subscription required). The mast-sharing plan follows the merging of Orange UK and T-Mobile (UK) 's networks to form EE in 2010 -- network asset consolidation is clearly where it's at in the British mobile market. (See Telefonica, Vodafone to Share UK Network.)

Dutch incumbent KPN Telecom NV (NYSE: KPN) has attracted several bidders for BASE , its Belgian mobile unit, reports Reuters, as it seeks a sale to cut its debt in the face of unwanted attention from Carlos Slim's América Móvil S.A. de C.V. Cable company Telenet is one of the interested parties, along with several private equity firms. (See Euronews: Slim's Stealthy Expansion and Euronews: Slim Makes His Move on KPN.)

NTT Communications Corp. (NYSE: NTT) has broadened its reach in Europe with a new PoP (point of presence) on its Tier 1 global IP network in Munich, NTT's sixth such PoP in Germany.

Hutchison 3G Austria GmbH , which is in the process of trying to take over rival Orange Austria Telecommunication GmbH. , is giving away mobile Internet in the form of free SIM cards offering 20Mbytes of data a day, reports Reuters.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading