Eurobites: DAZN agrees soccer French soccer deal with Canal+

Sports streaming company DAZN has struck a deal with Canal+, the French pay-TV operator, to show soccer matches from France's Ligue 1. DAZN's French subscribers will be able to access what are deemed Ligue 1's top two matches per week throughout the season on Canal+ Ligue 1, without having to subscribe to any other service. DAZN is also launching a linear channel, DAZN 1, which will be bundled with Canal+, reaching 1.2 million subscribers and providing access to the UEFA Women's Champions League, the Belgian Juliper Pro League and some boxing/combat match-ups.

Japan's SoftBank is in discussions to acquire the 25% stake in chip design company Arm that it doesn't already own, according to a Reuters report. The stake is currently in the hands of Vision Fund 1 (VF1), a $100 billion investment fund it set up in 2017 and which is backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, among others. The move is thought to have been prompted by Arm's impending IPO on the US stock market: If the proposed deal goes ahead, investors in VF1 would receive an instant windfall, says the report. (See As SoftBank preps IPO, Boris tries to Arm the FTSE.)

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is launching a new metro ring in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The project is being rolled out in two phases and aims to benefit hundreds of businesses in its initial phase, with further connections planned for phase two.

Ericsson is trialing new wood fiber-based packaging materials for its Remote Radio products with Deutsche Telekom and Swisscom as part of a drive to reduce its environmental impact. The new inserts are fully recyclable and reduce the total plastic content of the packaging from 20% to less than 1% – the remaining plastic being the tape used to seal the outer package.

Sweden's Sivers Wireless has landed a $425,000 development contract with an unnamed satellite communications network provider to develop and prototype electronically-steerable flat-panel phased-arrays for ground terminals to communicate with their satellite network. The panels will feature Sivers' Ka-band beamformer ICs (integrated circuits).

IoT Squared, the joint venture created a year ago between Saudi Telecom Company and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), is to acquire 100% of Machinestalk, a provider of IoT technology.

Manx Telecom, the largest telco on the Isle of Man, has upgraded its Cerillion-supplied business support system with the vendor's latest, open standards-based version of the software.