LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom
may be forced to sell assets closer to home and take a knife to
its cost base if its $39 billion deal to sell T-Mobile USA to
AT&T collapses.

Investment bankers in the telecoms sector say the German
group’s immediate priority will be to protect its dividend,
which it will struggle to do if the deal fails.

FRANKFURT/LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Prospects for the
$39 billion sale of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA
unit to AT&T darkened after the U.S. telecoms giant said
it would take a $4 billion charge in case of failure and the
pair gave up on one avenue of regulatory approval.

The companies have not given up hope of sealing the deal but
analysts said it now looks less likely than ever.

LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) – James Murdoch has resigned
from the boards of the publishing units within News Corp’s
British newspaper arm, which used to include the
now-defunct News of the World tabloid at the centre of the phone
hacking scandal, regulatory filings show.

Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert and deputy chief
operating officer of News Corp, remains chairman of News
International, the News Corp unit that houses its British
newspapers, and a member of the Times editorial board.

LONDON (Reuters) – British publishing group Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGOa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said its mid-market Mail on Sunday newspaper has established itself firmly as the market leader in the last quarter after the closure of scandal-hit rival News of the World.

The UK tabloid landscape has been transformed not only by the disappearance of top-selling Sunday tabloid the News of the World, but also by a series of investigations triggered by the scandal including an inquiry that may lead to new regulation.

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) – The parents of a murdered
British schoolgirl pleaded on Monday for the country’s
newspapers to curb practices such as phone hacking and covert
photography as a public inquiry into media standards turned the
spotlight on the celebrity obsessed press.

The disclosure in July that a long-simmering row over phone
hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had spread
from celebrities to a murder victim provoked an national outcry
that led to the closure of the newspaper.

LONDON (Reuters) – British publishing group Pearson Plc (PSON.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) agreed to buy China’s Global Education and Technology Group (GEDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which prepares students for English-language tests, for $155 million in cash, extending its reach in China from eight cities to 60.

Pearson is rapidly building on its 2009 acquisition of the Wall Street English language centers in China and has used much of the $2 billion it collected from the 2010 sale of data provider IDC for education acquisitions in China and India.

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 18 (Reuters) – Few companies are
making plans for a break-up of the euro zone or a deeper debt
crisis and many believe they could yet escape unscathed if
executive views at an investor conference this week are any
guide.

Instead, most companies are responding to the prolonged
economic uncertainty in the euro zone and the United States by
turning inwards and focusing on things they can control. A few
appeared to be in outright denial of a crisis.

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Russian mobile
telecoms group Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has no plans for more
international mergers following its controversial $6 billion
acquisition of Wind Italy in April, Chief Executive Jo Lunder
told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

“We are not building an empire. We are not trying to fill a
map with countries. We are here to create value,” Lunder said on
the sidelines of the Morgan Stanley technology, media and
telecoms conference in the Spanish city of Barcelona.

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 16 (Reuters) – French
advertising agency Publicis will return cash to
shareholders by other means if its largest shareholder, Japan’s
Dentsu, does not sell its 11 percent stake back to
Publicis, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Publicis has said it will cancel the shares currently held
by Dentsu, worth about $1 billion at current market value, if
the Japanese advertising group decides to exercise its option to
sell the stake in a window that runs until July 2012.

Nov 16 (Reuters) – Anglo-Dutch publishing and events
group Reed Elsevier Plc/NV posted a 1 percent
rise in underlying sales for the first nine months of the year
and said macroeconomic uncertainty had had only a marginal
effect on its results.

Each of its five business areas showed underlying growth,
excluding the effect of trade shows that happen every two years,
with its LexisNexis legal products holding up well as demand
from law firms remained subdued but stable, Reed said.