PARIS (Reuters) – France Telecom (FTE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is cutting its dividend and putting off a promised share buyback to conserve cash in the face of brutal competition from a new mobile player and Europe’s ongoing debt crisis.

France has been locked in a mobile price war since mid-January, when Iliad (ILD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) launched its ultra low-cost mobile offers, leading France Telecom to lose 201,000 customers to date.

PARIS, Feb 22 (Reuters) – France Telecom is
making its dividend payout policy more conservative and putting
off a promised share buyback, adopting a more prudent stance in
the face of brutal competition in its home market from a new
mobile player.

Chief Financial Officer Gervais Pellissier said on Wednesday
that the company was under intense pressure in France with a
mobile price war underway, and that it saw Europe’s economic
outlook as darker today than a year ago.

PARIS (Reuters) – Despite giving up his stock options for missing some of last year’s targets, Alcatel Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen still believes the telecoms equipment maker will one day match rivals three or four times more profitable.

It’s a tough ask for the Franco-American company, which posted its first annual profit last year since it was formed in an ill-fated 2006 merger.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s second-largest private broadcaster M6 (MMTP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) posted a slightly higher operating profit last year as its growing TV audience helped it attract more advertising dollars, allowing it to pay a stable dividend despite economic uncertainty.

But its business lines outside TV, such as its ownership of the Bordeaux football club and a unit that markets DVDs, continued to drag on revenues and profits.

PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – France Telecom has
reached a preliminary accord to buy out most of Egyptian tycoon
Naguib Sawiris’ stake in their jointly owned telecom operator
Mobinil, in a deal that will see the French group pay out about
1.5 billion euros, according to Reuters calculations.

France Telecom was already the biggest shareholder in
Mobinil, and Egypt is a key part of its effort to expand in
high-growth emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East.

MAYINGYI VILLAGE, Myanmar, Dec 18 (Reuters) – By A
Reuters Staff Reporter

MAYINGYI VILLAGE, Myanmar, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Tun Aung knew
there were plans for his village to be moved to make way for a
multi-billion dollar industrial zone and deep-sea port, but the
whole thing was hard to imagine.

PARIS, Dec 14 (Reuters) – France’s press is facing a
run of bad news as declining readership, slumping advertising
sales and structurally higher printing and distribution costs
take their toll on once-proud national titles.

Tabloid France Soir and business paper La Tribune are
teetering on the brink of liquidation and may soon kill their
print editions to go Internet-only, while leading financial
daily Les Echos announced a cost-cutting plan to trim nearly 10
percent of its 430 staff.

PARIS (Reuters) – French video games maker Ubisoft (UBIP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it was well-positioned for the Christmas season after Thanksgiving sales proved better than last year, helped by a dance game featuring pop group the Black Eyed Peas.

“Our sales at Thanksgiving were exceptional in the United States,” said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, at the Reuters Global Media Summit in Paris.

PARIS (Reuters) – Publicis (PUBP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will begin the search process for a successor to veteran Chief Executive Maurice Levy this summer, although it has not set any fixed timetable for the selection nor for Levy’s departure.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit on Wednesday, Levy said he believed the successor would be picked internally and need not be French despite the group’s historical roots and traditional influence in France.