Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MegaFon and VEON call time on retail joint venture; all change at TM Forum; Swisscom frozen out of ice hockey action.
Lisbon, the historic Portuguese capital, is to get the smart city treatment courtesy of NEC Corp. (Tokyo: 6701), which has landed the contract to put in place an infrastructure project aimed at improving the operation of city services and, ultimately, the population's quality of life. NEC will use its Cloud City Operation Center (CCOC) to integrate ten internal systems managed by Lisbon's city government and 30 external systems managed by several project partners.
MegaFon and VEON have called time on Euroset, their retail joint venture of five years' standing, with MegaFon acquiring VEON's 50% stake in the business. However, as part of the deal, VEON, through its PJSC VimpelCom subsidiary, will acquire half of Euroset's stores. The proposed transaction is subject to the usual regulatory approvals.
It's a changing of the guard at TM Forum , the industry association focused on communications software developments, with three new senior-level appointments. Paul Wilson (ex Bristol Is Open) becomes chief marketing officer, Andy Tiller (ex Asia Info) joins as executive vice president, and Naveen Suri (ex Iconectiv) takes over as vice president for global member engagement.
There are rink-side ructions at Swisscom AG (NYSE: SCM), as the operator vents its feelings over being prevented from being able to show UPC's broadcasts of Swiss ice hockey league games on its TV service. Swisscom was hoping that Switzerland's competition commission would have taken up the case, but so far it has declined to do so. As far as Swisscom is concerned, the case continues.
Today sees the annual general meeting of BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) and its shareholders in London, and, as the Financial Times reports (subscription required), it is expected to be a lively affair, with the company's ougoing chairman, Mike Rake, in for a rough ride in the wake of the financial scandal at its Italian subsidiary which helped send its share price down by more than 27% over the course of a year. Opening the meeting, Rake acknowledged that BT's year had been "overshadowed by the financial misconduct and collusive fraud" at its Italian operation. (See Dodgy Italian Job Savages BT Earnings, Share Price Tanks.)
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
