IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 8 August
08-08-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Vodafone opts to retain Verizon Wireless stake | Virgin Media auction postponed
The Irish Times reports that Smart Communications has acquired a 30 percent stake in Irish mobile operator Blue Ocean Wireless. Read the full story on ENN.
The Irish Examiner says that Cable & Wireless has won a EUR1.5 million contract with Canada Life Group Services, as reported by ENN on Tuesday.
The Financial Times says that Vodafone has announced that it will not exercise a right to sell part of its minority stake in US mobile operator Verizon Wireless. Vodafone said in a statement that it was in the best interest of shareholders to hold onto its 45 percent stake, which is worth an estimated USD54 billion. This is the fifth and final year that Vodafone has an option to sell part of its Verizon Wireless stake to Verizon Communications, the US company that owns 55 percent of the mobile operator. Vodafone's option is exercisable during a 60-day period that expires on Thursday.
The paper also reports that shares in Virgin Media fell to below the level at which they stood before it put itself up for auction last month, as the cable group confirmed that turbulent debt markets had forced it to postpone the deadline for bidders. Jim Mooney, Virgin Media's chairman, is understood to be proceeding with presentations to potential bidders, but some of the groups examining the company said they now expected no progress on the auction before October. The prospect that a deal might not be completed before early next year, if at all, left Virgin Media's shares trading at USD23.31, down USD0.43, by lunchtime on Tuesday in New York.
The same paper says a US congressional committee is investigating whether Yahoo intentionally misled Congress over its role in exposing the identity of a Chinese journalist who was sent to prison for a decade. The House foreign affairs committee announced the probe last week after new documents showed possible discrepancies in Yahoo's 2006 testimony at a congressional hearing about its co-operation with Chinese authorities in the case against Shi Tao. The Chinese reporter and editor was arrested after posting material on a website about a government crackdown on media and democracy.
According to the Wall Street Journal, three of Xerox's top executives recently purchased some of their company's stock -- the first such insider purchases at Xerox in almost two years. Chairman and Chief Executive Anne M. Mulcahy, Chief Financial Officer Lawrence A. Zimmerman and President Ursula M. Burns bought a total of about USD430,000 of Xerox shares. While Zimmerman's transaction adds to a personal history of stock purchases starting in 2002, Mulcahy and Burns had been sellers in recent years, with their most recent stock sales taking place in January.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 