Also in today's EMEA roundup: Telekom Austria's not scared of Slim; Vodafone execs hit bonus jackpot; BT trials Huawei's G-fast tech.
Speculation is mounting that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) will use some of the cash it pockets from the sale of its handsets unit to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to buy Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)'s mobile networks equipment business and merge it with Nokia Networks , reports Bloomberg. A Helsinki-based analyst with Nordea Bank confidently predicts to Bloomberg that "there is a relatively high likelihood of this deal happening,” with estimates of value of the deal ranging from €1 billion (US$1.3 billion) to €2 billion ($2.7 billion). (See Nokia Sells Devices Business to Microsoft and ALU + NSN: A Reality Check.)
Should Telekom Austria AG (NYSE: TKA; Vienna: TKA) be afraid of Carlos Slim's intentions now that his bid to take over KPN has run into the sand? Not according to Telekom Austria CEO Hannes Ametsreiter, who, Reuters reports, told a retail investment conference that although Slim's América Móvil S.A. de C.V. already owned nearly 23 percent of the company he did not think that it would "act in a hostile way" to increase its stake. (See Euronews: Slim Abandons KPN Bid.)
Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD)'s senior executives are in line for a combined £56 million ($90.5 million) in bonuses when the $130 billion sale of the UK-based group's stake in Verizon Wireless completes next year, predicts The Guardian. The terms of the deal allow Vodafone's big cheeses to include recent gains in the company's stock market value to be reflected in the bonuses. (See Vodafone Agrees to $130B Verizon Stake Sale.)
BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA) is to conduct a field trial of G.fast fixed access technology from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The move fits in with BT's planned broadband rollout strategy but could cast doubts on the potential for nationwide FTTH deployments. (See BT Trials Huawei's G.fast for FTTx.)
Belgian mobile operator Mobistar SA , which revised its full-year outlook substantially downwards in July, has posted third-quarter profits down 26 percent year-on-year to €89.1 million ($122 million), though, as Reuters reports, this is still a better result than several analysts had predicted.</ p>
Etisalat has teamed up with MasterCard for a demonstration of a mobile payments system designed for the much-hyped Google Glass device. Here's Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, the CEO of Etisalat, having a go… Figure 1: "No, really boss, it doesn't look stupid at all."
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
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