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Vodafone eyeing Liberty Global assets; Altice to sell global voice biz

TOP NEWS

* Vodafone Group Plc confirmed reports that it is in early-stage discussions to acquire some of Liberty Global plc's overlapping continental European assets. The deal involves Liberty Global's cable assets in Germany and its holdings across eastern Europe, London's Financial Times reports, citing a person close to the talks.

* Altice NV is selling its international voice business in different markets, such as in Portugal, as part of the company's debt reduction strategy, Telecompaper reports, citing Jornal de Negocios. The sale of its Portugal business, however, would only target the customer base, and would not include the telecommunications network owned by Altice Portugal SA unit MEO.

UK AND IRELAND

* Trinity Mirror plc is close to sealing a deal to buy newspapers Daily Express and Daily Star and their Sunday titles, as well as celebrity magazine OK!, London's The Sunday Telegraph reports. The newspaper publisher is reportedly expected to pay almost £130 million for the titles, which would be acquired from Richard Desmond's holding company Northern & Shell Plc.

* Former British Broadcasting Corp. Africa correspondent Jane Standley has revealed for the first time the gender pay discrimination she allegedly faced at the public broadcaster. In an opinion piece for London's The Guardian, Standley said she left after she caught the BBC "red-handed in breaking not just equal pay legislation, but a deeper moral code of truth telling and human decency."

* Kelly Webb-Lamb is joining Channel 4 (UK) as its deputy director of programmes and head of popular factual, TBI Vision reports. C4's factual entertainment, features and daytime commissioning teams will report to Webb-Lamb.

GERMANY, SWITZERLAND AND AUSTRIA

* Former Google Inc. executive Alexandar Vassilev has been appointed CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE and Discovery Communications Inc.'s joint streaming service 7TV. Vassilev will take over his new role immediately and will be in charge of the growth and development of the service in Germany. Alphabet Inc. owns Google.

* RTL Group CEO Bert Habets and Bertelsmann Printing Group CEO Axel Hentrei are joining Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA's group management committee, with immediate effect. Guillaume de Posch, who has been a member of the committee since 2012, is stepping down following his resignation as RTL Group's co-CEO. Bertelsmann owns RTL Group.

* The negotiators for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, together with the Social Democrats, plan to allocate between €10 billion to €12 billion to build gigabit-speed fixed-line data networks over the next four years, Reuters reports, citing a coalition paper. The planned coalition would also eye to use the development of 5G mobile data networks to augment the networks' coverage.

* German cable provider Unitymedia will be allowed to use customer routers to expand its WLAN network, according to a legal verdict. Spiegel reports that the company would not require permission by its customers.

* Luka Mucic, the head of finance at German software company SAP SE, has predicted increased profitability for 2018, Handelsblatt reports, citing Euro am Sonntag. Mucic said that the company considers a consolidation of its cloud infrastructure.

FRANCE

* Orange Business Services, on behalf of Orange Healthcare SAS, acquired French software publisher Enovacom SAS. Orange SA said Orange Healthcare aims to develop solutions to enable healthcare players to communicate with each other and stay in contact with patients.

* EuropaCorp confirmed it is looking for a partner, Les Echos reports. A spokesperson for Luc Besson's film production company said that the framework of the potential agreement has not been defined but that none of the potential partners would have any exclusivity.

* Canal Plus SA General Manager Maxime Saada said the company will not pay TF1 (FR) to broadcast free-to-air channels and is ready to cease broadcast of TF1 programs, Le Journal du Dimanche reports.

NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM AND LUXEMBOURG

* Cable provider DELTA will be providing inhabitants and businesses in outlying areas of Zeeland with a fast fiber connection in the coming months, following an intensive campaign with local working groups. While DELTA owns and provides the network, Greenet will realize the fixed wireless network for DELTA.

* Vodafone Nederland has named Dutch IT and telecom provider INTO as its certified installer partner for its business Hoste Voice Portfolio. The two companies have worked together for years.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

* Cevian Capital AB now owns 10% of Ericsson AB's shares, Dagens Industri reports. The private equity firm purchased millions of additional shares after Ericsson posted a large fourth quarter 2017 loss.

* Polaris Media ASA increased its share ownership in newspaper publisher Trønder-Avisa AS to 56%, e24.no reports. Additional shares were bought from LL Inntrøndelagen A/S. Nord-Trøndelag will remain a minority owner in Trønder-Avisa.

* Tieto Oyj said it hired artificial intelligence scientist Christian Guttmann to lead its Nordic innovation program. Guttmann has been recruited to strengthen Tieto's AI capabilities and drive expansion in its digital-based business consulting area.

SOUTHERN EUROPE

* RTVE authorized a €4 million project to develop software that would provide analytics on users and viewers, Rapid TV News reports. The Spanish broadcaster tapped IT companies Nextret and Konodrac to work on the big data platform for the MyRTVE project over the next three years.

* Telecom Italia SpA's international unit Telecom Italia Sparkle SpA will be providing its global IP transit service, called Seabone, to the members of internet exchange point France-IX, Telecompaper reports. The agreement would bring Seabone in Paris and Marseille hubs, allowing for France-IX's customers to use Sparkle's Tier-1 IP backbone.

* Fastweb SpA appointed Andrea Lasagna as the company's technology officer, Telecompaper reports. Lasagna, who was previously the Swisscom AG unit's head of network engineering, will now directly report to Fastweb CEO Alberto Calcagno.

EASTERN EUROPE

* Zygmunt Solorz-Zak has augmented his ownership in Cyfrowy Polsat SA to about 8.8 billion Polish zlotys worth of stakes, Broadband TV News reports. Solorz-Zak now owns 57.34% of the share capital, either directly or indirectly, and 65.97% of the total number of votes.

* Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has launched the second phase of its proceedings over Cyfrowy Polsat's bid of 638.8 million Polish zlotys to acquire Netia SA, Broadband TV News reports. The regulator intends to examine the market, which would include verifying shares of Cyfrowy Polsat, Netia and its rivals in the market.

* Virgin Group Ltd.-controlled Virgin Connect rolled out its mobile virtual network operator in Russia, Telecompaper reports, citing Cnews.ru. The MVNO, which uses Tele2 Russia's network, is now offering broadband services in about 500 settlements.

* Russia's direct-to home platform NTV-Plus rolled out Online TV, an over-the-top platform that allows its subscribers to watch its channels and satellite subscriptions on any device, Broadband TV News reports. The service will be free for the first two months and will cost 199 Russian rubles a month afterwhich.

FEATURED NEWS

Tech investors provide reprieve for debt-strapped Wanda Group: A major investment by a Tencent Holdings-led consortium should help Wanda Commercial to expedite the development of a sizable offline and online integrated business model in China, analysts said.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: Global multichannel market up 3.5% in 2017 as Western Europe reaches saturation: The global pay TV market grew by 3.5% in 2017, reaching 1.05 billion subs and 60.5% penetration. Western Europe's multichannel penetration fell below that of Eastern Europe in 2017 and is expected to stagnate in 2018 and start declining in 2019.

RECENT EARNINGS

BT Group takes long-term view as revenue slips 3%: British telecom giant BT Group encouraged investors to shift their focus away from quarterly swings and toward a long-term view after costs related to pensions, business rates and its investments lowered profits in the third quarter.

Charter CEO lays out 2018 plans for 1 Gbps speeds 'everywhere,' mobile offering: Charter Communications CEO Tom Rutledge said the company is on track to launch a mobile offering "in the middle of this year," and to roll out 1 Gbps speeds across all of its markets by year-end.

Sprint CEO touts spectrum advantage in race to nationwide mobile 5G: Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure believes his company will play a leading role in the deployment of next-generation 5G technology. But he emphasized the company will also remain keenly focused on controlling costs.

Anne Freier, Sylvia Edwards Davis, Charlotte van Hek and Gerard O'Dwyer contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. London time. Some external links may require a subscription.