Vodafone to add UK towers to IPO; Deutsche Telekom may sell Dutch unit

TOP NEWS IN TMT

* Vodafone Group PLC plans to transfer its 50% shareholding in U.K. joint venture Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd. to its telecom infrastructure company Vantage Towers within the month. The move adds 82,000 sites to Vantage Towers' portfolio ahead of its planned listing in 2021.

* Deutsche Telekom AG is looking to sell its Dutch unit T-Mobile Netherlands BV in a deal that could be worth up to €5 billion, Reuters reported, citing Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad that quoted sources.

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TECHNOLOGY

* Ireland-headquartered Accenture PLC acquired Real Protect, a privately held managed security and cyber defense services company based in Brazil, in a bid to expand its cybersecurity presence in Latin America. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

INTERNET & OTT

* The Turkish Competition Board launched a probe into WhatsApp Inc. and its parent company Facebook after the app started asking users to allow Facebook to collect their data, Reuters reported. The regulator wants Facebook to postpone the collection of data until it has completed its investigation.

* Sports streamer DAZN Group appointed Shay Segev and James Rushton as its co-CEOs. Rushton has acted as DAZN's acting CEO since June 2020, while Segev will join DAZN in the coming months.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Twitter's move to ban outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump breaches the "fundamental right to free speech," the Financial Times reported.

* The British Broadcasting Corp. signed a deal with British Telecom for Everything Everywhere Ltd., BT Mobile and Plusnet Mobile subscribers to access BBC Bitesize content without data charges.

* In other BBC news, the broadcaster's Northern Ireland business will start offering educational content aimed at primary students in Northern Island on the BBC iPlayer streaming platform starting Jan. 15.

* TDC A/S appointed Louise Stenberg as CEO of its streaming service Blockbuster, replacing Casper Hald, who left the company in November.

* KPN NV nominated Gerard van de Aast for appointment to the company's supervisory board for a term of four years, effective April 14. Van de Aast will succeed Derk Haank, who will step down at the end of his third and final term.

* Altice Europe-owned SFR FTTH launched the first of two optical connection nodes for the fiber network of Saint-Avold Synergie's nine municipalities. Fiber deployment began at the end of 2019 and will be completed by the end of 2022.

MEDIA

* Comcast Corp.-owned Sky Ltd. unveiled members of its diversity advisory council and appointed Denise Peart to the newly created role of chief talent, diversity and inclusion officer.

* In another Sky appointment, Tim Pearson will serve as managing director of Sky Media Ltd., replacing John Lister, Advanced Television reported. Jamie Schwartz is also appointed as director of brand, marketing and merchandising of NOW TV, according to a separate Advanced Television report.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Cellnex Telecom SA completed its €10 billion acquisition of CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.'s telecommunications tower assets in Austria, Denmark and Ireland., bringing the Spain-headquartered telco's presence to 10 European markets.

* British Telecom will establish a new digital unit, effective April 1. The new unit will advance the U.K. telco's digital innovation agenda and will be responsible for BT's IT and company-wide business transformation projects.

* Texas District Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap ruled that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. cannot prevent Ericsson from pursuing its case on patent royalties by using a Chinese court ruling, Bloomberg News reported. Ericsson earlier filed a suit seeking royalties from Samsung for the use of its mobile technologies.

* Tele2 AB selected Nokia Corp. to deploy standalone 5G core and voice over 5G in Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The deployments starts in 2021.

* Telecom Italia SpA completed the issuance of its €1 billion sustainability bond with eight-year maturity.

MARKETS

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Frances Espeso, Amanda Kelly, Charlotte van Hek, Marieke Pijnappels, Esben Svendsen and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report.

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