Euronews: Merger Charge Hits DT's Q3

Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT), Telekom Austria AG (NYSE: TKA; Vienna: TKA) and Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM) lead the charge in today's assault on the EMEA headlines.

A €7.4 billion (US$9.4 billion) impairment charge relating to the planned merger of its T-Mobile US Inc. subsidiary to MetroPCS Inc. (NYSE: PCS) was chiefly responsible for lumbering Deutsche Telekom with a €6.9 billion ($8.7 billion) net loss in its third quarter financials. Discounting special items such as this, EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) were down 2.6 percent year-on-year at €4.78 billion ($6.1 billion), which was slightly better than analysts expected in a Reuters poll. (See Deutsche Telekom Loses €6.9B in Q3, T-Mobile in Talks to Buy MetroPCS and MetroPCS Investors Try to Block T-Mobile Deal.)

A fresh whiff of scandal surrounds Telekom Austria, where CEO Hannes Ametsreiter and former company officials are being investigated on suspicion of breach of trust, reports Reuters. The case centers, rather bizarrely, on what happened to the €1.4 million ($1.8 million) paid as Telekom Austria's rental of a Vienna theater to host public viewings of the 2008 European soccer championships. (See Telekom Austria Probes Huawei Deals and Telekom Austria Cites IPO Irregularities.)

Swisscom has revised its full-year EBITDA forecast for 2012 slightly downwards following a year-on-year 9.2 percent fall in net income from January to September. Net income for the first nine months reached 1.38 billion Swiss Francs ($1.45 billion), on revenues down 1.3 percent at CHF8.42 billion ($8.88 billion). (See Swisscom Makes CHF1.38B Profit Jan-Sept and Swisscom Announces Job Losses (& Gains).)

U.K.-based cable operator Virgin Media Inc. (Nasdaq: VMED) has launched Virgin TV Anywhere, an IPTV-on-the-go service available to view on laptops, tablets and smartphones. However, it only works with a fixed broadband or Wi-Fi connection, not 3G, so maybe "anywhere" is stretching it a bit. (See Virgin Launches TV Anywhere Service.)

Cable & Wireless Communications , the London-based operator with operations in the Caribbean and other sunny climes, saw its first-half EBITDA rise 2 percent year-on-year to $445 million, reports Reuters, despite a continuing decline in voice revenues.

— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading