Market Currents

• Wednesday, November 25, 2009

• 09:25 AM France Telecom (FTE) will pay €1.5B for a 75% stake in a company that will hold the assets and clients of TDC's Sunrise and France Telecom's Orange in Switzerland. The new operation will have about 38% of the Swiss mobile telephony market, and 13% of fixed broadband connections. Comment!

• Thursday, October 29, 2009

• 05:29 AM France Telecom (FTE): Q3 Ebitda of €4.56B (-8%), in line with consensus. Revenue of €12.69B (-6.4%) vs. €12.85B. Expects Q4 to be similar to Q3, and will thus continue to implement cost savings plans to prevent its Ebitda margin from declining further. Shares -0.5% in Paris. (PR, WSJ) Comment!

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009

• 04:12 AM Vodafone (VOD) to sell Apple's (AAPL) iPhone in the U.K. and Ireland starting early 2010 (PR). The announcement comes a day after France Télécom's (FTE) Orange got the go-ahead to sell the iPhone in the U.K., bringing to an end to O2's (TEF) two-year exclusive contract. Comment!

• Sunday, September 13, 2009

• 16:26 PM Hot off its JV with France Telecom's (FTE) Orange, Deutsche Telekom (DT) is reportedly mulling a bid for Sprint Nextel (S). 1 Comment

• Tuesday, September 8, 2009

• 04:19 AM As expected, Deutsche Telekom (DT) and France Telecom (FTE) announce plans to merge their U.K. operations - T-Mobile U.K. and Orange - vaulting them into the lead of the U.K. market with 30M customers and 38% market share. The combo will generate cost savings of £4B ($5.7B). (PR) Comment!

• Monday, September 7, 2009

• 10:09 AM Deutsche Telekom (DT) and France Telecom (FTE) will join their U.K. operations in a 'merger of equals,' topping Telefonica (TEF) to form Britain's largest mobile-phone operator. The deal is expected to be signed today, and announced tomorrow. (DJ) Comment!

• Sunday, September 6, 2009

• 17:17 PM Sources say Vodafone (VOD) and Telefonica SA (TEF) have each tabled £3.5B bids for T-Mobile UK (DT), but Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann may prefer a proposal by France Telecom (FTE) which would merge T-Mobile with Orange. (London Times) Comment!

• Thursday, September 3, 2009

• 14:16 PM Deutsche Telekom (DT +1.5%) is reportedly putting T-Mobile UK on the selling block, with possible buyers including Vodafone (VOD), France Telecom (FTE) and Telefonica (TEF). Comment!

• Thursday, July 30, 2009

• 09:07 AM France Telecom (FTE): H1 Ebitda fell 5.1% to €8.82B ($12.4B), better than consensus of €8.67B. Sales fell 3.2% to €25.46B. Sees H2 slightly lower than H1. “Even if second semester shows lower revenue, globally it shows that the group is resisting well against a backdrop of a declining world economy and a hardening regulatory environment." Shares +3% premarket. (Bloomberg) Comment!

• Thursday, July 2, 2009

• 08:51 AM A potential bidding war for the British unit of Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile (DT): After reports last week that Vodafone (VOD) is considering a bid, come reports that both France Telecom's Orange (FTE) and Telefonica's O2 (TEF) are also weighing offers. Comment!

• Wednesday, March 4, 2009

• 08:10 AM France Telecom (FTE): Full-year net profit fell 35% to €4.07B vs. consensus of €5.31B. Sales of €53.49B (+1%) were in-line. Boosts dividend to €1.40 from €1.30. Plans to save €1.5B by 2011, a "first-time" move which impressed analysts. Shares +1.6% in Paris. (PR) Comment!

• Sunday, January 4, 2009

• 08:12 AM Vodafone (VOD) and Orange (FTE) are close to signing a deal to further share the cost of technology, engineering and maintenance at their network base stations in the U.K., which could save VOD £1B a year. Comment!

• Wednesday, December 17, 2008

• 15:21 PM The French competition council vetos Orange's (FTE) exclusive iPhone distribution contract with Apple (AAPL). FTE says it will appeal the "serious" decision. Comment!

• Friday, September 19, 2008

• 08:41 AM Pre-market losers: URI -10%. PALM -6%. NLY -3%. NVS -2.6%. CBY -2%. FTE -2%. Comment!

• Thursday, July 31, 2008

• 06:55 AM France Telecom (FTE): First-half profit of €2.7B. Revenue of €26.3B (+1.5%). Q2 revenue of €13.3B (+1.6%). Shares +2% in Paris. [PR] Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open I: ABX, ADP, AEP, AET, AIZ, APA, AZN, BCO, BPO, BWA, CBB, CBS, CEG, CLI, CNX, COT, CTL, CVC, CVS, D, DSX, EK, EXPE, FAF, FPL, FTE, GG, GT, HP, IP Comment!