DIGESTS://Telecoms, Internet, Media: May 15-19, 2006

1. TELECOMS:

COMPANIES:

PTT:

TeliaSonera: acquires 82.3% of NextGenTel (altnet Norway: DSL, WiMax), 65.5 NOK/share (premium 45%) = NOK 1.54 bn
BT: Q4 in line with expectations
Telefonica: Mediaset interested in Endemol (denies) (Corriere della sera)
Belgacom: denies planned state sale
KPN: appoints Scott McKenzie CSO for mobile
Telekom Malaysia plans IPO of Spice Telecom (India) late 2006
CamTel plans launch of Cameroon Mobile Telecomms (#3 wireless)
Maltacom: Tecom and DIG acquire 60%, $283m
Jordan Telecom: Jordan plans reducing stake (41.5%) by selling 11% to FT (has 40%)
Embarq (Sprint spin-off) down 3.6% on first day of trading

MOBILE:

Vodafone: rumoured to sell 45% of VZW to Verizon, $48 bn + $8 bn debt (Observer); alliance with SoftBank (develop and procure mobile technology and content)
NTT DoCoMo: considers diversification (e.g. finance) to offset slowing growth in mobile
Telekom Kolejowa (= PKP) wins fourth GSM license Poland, PLZ 510m = $168m
Serbia receives 10 offers for Mobi 63 (formerly Mobtel) from Telenor, DT, FT, Mobilkom Austria (= Telekom Austria), TeliaSonera, Tele2, Orascom, Cellcom, Etisalat, OJSC Mobile; short list May 19, winner late July
Sony BMG plans MVNO for Christians with Integrity Media

ALTNETS:

QSC: Q1 sunrise (TDC Switzerland): plans managed services for SMEs (‘sunrise 1com’: DSL, VoIP, security, VPN, WiFi), plans 145 job cuts (5.7% of 2524)

MOBILE/ALTNETS:

Wind (= Orascom, Weather) plans IPO late 2006 or early 2007 to raise EUR 2 bn for 20-30%


TRENDS:

FIXED:

Copper, xDSL, LLU:
Uganda Telecom launches DSL service (90-300 $/mo for 64-256 kbps)

FTTH:
Erenis (FTTB for MDUs in Paris) deploys VDSL chipsets from Ikanos (up to 100 Mbps)
Naya Tel orders gear from Alcatel for Islamabad network (30k subs)

CATV:
BigBand and Netgear partner to develop DOCSIS 3.0 products
Motorola’s BSR 2000 (broadband services router) receives DOCSIS 1.1 and 2.0 certification

Regulation:
Kenya plans tender for SNO (second national operator), award license early 2007
Tanzania awards SNO license to BOL (Benson Informatics Ltd)
Nigeria awards 4 integrated licenses to Multilinks, Starcomms, Intercellular, Prest Cable & Satellite Comms

WIRELESS

WiFi:
Deployments: BT plans 12 citywide mesh-networks in the UK
In-home: Ruckus Wireless’ ‘MediaFlex WiFi’ router system ordered by Ayersville Telephone (Ohio), Monroe Telephone (Ore), Wilkes Telecomms (NC), Panhandle Telephone Coop (Okl), CC Comms (Nev)
Muniwifi: Houston approves citywide network, 5 bidders: EarthLink, Redmoon Broadband, Convergent Broadband, nextWLAN, Houston WiFi

Cellular:
International roaming: TeliaSonera starts talks over lowering wholesale rates
Mobile termination: E-Plus (KPN) proposes alternative fees (5 c/min for T-Mobile and Vodafone, 9 c/min for E-Plus and O2) as opposed to plan from the other operators (9 and 11.5 c/min; currently 11 and 12.4 c/min), asks for regulation
Content & services:
Internet: KDDI and China Mobile plan adding Google search
TV: KT launches T-DMB service over WiBro with KBS; CellularVision (= Speedus) sues Verizon Wireless over technology; PCCW launches service on CMB (Cell Multimedia Broadcast) technology (up to 250 users/cell) from Huawei; Telcel (Mexico) launches (downloads only, no streaming)
GPS: Disney Mobile family locator service powered by Autodesk

WiMAX, WLL, BWA, BFW, Flash-OFDM, xMax, UMTS TD-CDMA, iBurst:
IPO: NextWave Wireless (‘WiMAXplus’: 802.16e; chipset, spectrum covering 93m pops, PacketyVideo for software for handsets) plans IPO and trial in Henderson (NV)
Spectrum, licenses: Woosh Wireless acquires usage rights to New Zealand Telecom spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band; Versatel (= Tele2) sells license to Casema (= Carlyle, Providence, GMT)
Deployments: TT&T to invest THB 6 bn for roll-out in 2006, launch late 2006

CONVERGENCE:
VoIP:
Deployments: Skype (eBay) launches promo through 2006: SkypeOut free in N-America (guidance unchanged: revenue $200m in 2006); AOL (Time Warner) launches AIM Phoneline (PC-to-PSTN, free phone number)
IPTV: AT&T plans expansion to 15-20 markets by end 2006; DT: deal with Premiere (Bundesliga matches over IPTV from 06/07 season)
F/M: sunrise (TDC) plans dual-mode handset (GSM/WiFi) autumn 2006; FT plans dual-mode phone 06Q4; Kineto wins fifth operator customer for UMA gear



2. INTERNET:

COMPANIES:

eBay: Supreme Court sides with eBay against MercExchange, overturns Appeals Court (which judged that the trial court should have issued an injunction)
Amazon: plans electronic soul mate (similar buying pattern, to enhance recommendations); launches ‘Print-on-demand’ for book publishers with BookSurge
Yahoo: Analyst Day, Alibaba plans IPO

TRENDS:

SEARCH:
Technology: Yahoo! launches Yahoo! Answers (out of beta) and new homepage; Snap.com relaunches (with previews, ads inserted and pay-per-action: only if transaction is completed)
Local: Planet Discover acquired by Gannett
Comparison shopping: ShopWiki launches Mobile Search (beta)
Enterprise: Microsoft launches Knowledge Network

WEB 2.0:
AOL (Time Warner) launched social network ‘AIM Pages’ for AIM users and AOL UnCut (beta) for user-generated video (Flash 8 format), with mobile uploading (technology: VideoEgg)



3. MEDIA:

COMPANIES:

B2C:

Entertainment:
Vivendi: Q1 final, raises 2006 guidance (net income +16%), introduces 2011 guidance (adjusted net income EUR 3.5-4.0 bn, 2006-2001 operating profit CAGR 8-10%); rejects Sebastian Holdings proposal to dismantle; denies offer from Sebastian, 33.50 EUR/share
Univision: Haim Saban, Madison Dearborn, Providence, Texas Pacific and Thomas H. Lee plan offer
Bertelsmann: plans autioning off BMG Music Publishing (revenue 2005: $372m), early June ($1.7 bn)
Sony: ‘Da Vinci Code’ earns $77m at box office over first weekend
DreamWorks Animation: ‘Over the hedge’ earns $37m over first weekend

Cable/satellite:
XM sued by RIAA over ‘Inno’ (device from Pioneer: portable satellite radio with storage)
Cablemas (Mexico) postpones IPO (low demand)

Publishing:
Gannett acquires Planet Discover (local search)
Telegraaf acquires Keesing (puzzle books; 2006E: revenue 55m, EBITA-margin 20%) from NPM, EUR 81.3m, management to have 5%

B2B:

Advertising:
WPP: Campbell Soup consolidates media account ($300m) at Mediaedge:cia; Wrigley reviews UK media account (GBP 13m), currently at MediaCom; WPP plans more acquisitions in China (Financial Times); Groupe Danone places media account ($75m) in review (currently at MediaCom)
Publicis: Miller Brewing keeps media account ($300m) at StarCom (bested Carat (= Aegis))
Mediamark Research Inc pulls out of RfP for radio ratings system, leaving Arbitron and Media Audit
Bridgestone Firestone invites 7 (Arnold (= Havas), Cramer-Krasselt, Leo Burnett (= Publicis), The Richards Group, Foote Cone & Belding (= Interpublic), The Kaplan Thaler Group (= Publicis), Grey (= WPP)) to compete for media/creative account ($25m)
Arbitron: CBS orders PPM service for radio ratings, 7 years
VNU: Knight Vinke gives up resistance against offer; VNU: offer declared irrevocable (78.7% tendered, extended to June 9)

Publishing:
Reed Elsevier: rejected offer from Cinven et al (Candover?) for Reed Business, GBP 2 bn? (Times)


TRENDS:

STM: Humboldt-Universitaet (Berlin) joins ‘Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities’

CABLE: McCain (R) plans US bill incentivising a la carte by reducing franchise fee (5% of revenues) for CATV and national franchise for IPTV

MUSIC DISTRIBUTION: MTV (Viacom) and Microsoft plan launch of ‘Urge’ May 17 (10 $/mo for download to PC, 15 $/mo for downloads to handhelds, permanent downloads 1 $/track)

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION:
MySpace plans selling Fox TV shows (both News Corp)
Orb Networks: deal with MeeVee (video search)
TiVo and Blockbuster rumoured to plan marketing partnership (30 $/mo for Blockbuster’s 3-movies deal + TiVo Series2 DVR)
AOL (Time Warner) acquires Lightningcast (ad inserts)