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  • German Mobile Marketing Firm Communology Receives 'Several Million' In Second Round

    Cologne, Germany-based Communology has received "several million dollars" in a second round of funding. The lead investor was Munich Venture Partners and existing investors S-VC, Kreditanstalt Wiederaufbau and founders Thomas Kahler and Frank Bell participated. The seven-year old mobile marketing and software firm didn't disclose the exact terms, but said the capital will be used to expand into more countries and further develop social communities and instant messaging services. ( Release ). Join us for EconMusic Sep. 23 in London featuring a Mobile Music panel with Nokia Music’s Tom Erskine, Sony BMG’s Ian Henderson, Vodafone UK’s Tom McLennan and O2’s Julian Zmood discussing the exciting future of this sector. Register at http://contentnext.com/econmusic .
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  • Earnings: Buongiorno Reports Strong Results For First-Half 2008; Sees Weakness Coming

    Italian mobile content company Buongiorno released financial results for the first half of the year today, reporting that both revenues and operating profits are up in the six-month period, but cautioned that the economic climate may hurt results in the short term. The company did not break down results for the second quarter. Andrea Casalini, Buongiorno's (BIT: BNG) CEO: "We believe that the mobile entertainment market will continue to offer significant long-term opportunities, despite the less buoyant short term outlook, resulting from our period of adjustment and macroeconomic conditions. Release. During the year, Buongiorno increased its presence in new markets, such as South Africa, Australia and Argentina. In the first half, its biggest markets in terms of revenues were Iberia, the UK, Italy and the Mediterranean, France, the U.S., Latin America and Germany and Austria. In the year's first-half, the company reported revenues of $232 million (EUR 158 million), an increase of 84 percent compared to the prior year. The company reported that earnings before some expenses, or EBITDA, was $24 million (EUR 16.3 million), an increase of 96 percent compared to the year earlier. Operating profit was also up 74 percent, and the company implemented some cost savings goals that resulted in a savings in personnel costs. The company today confirmed the revised 2008 forecast it tweaked back in July. Buongiorno expects revenues for 2008 to be as much as $491 million (EUR 335 million) and EBITDA of up to $58.7 million (EUR 40 million). Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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  • Earnings: Deutsche Telekom Profits Down 35 Percent; T-Mob USA Revenue Up

    Deutsche Telekom's second quarter profit dropped 35 percent to 394 million euros ($608.2 million) from 604 million euros ($934 million) a year ago. The company blamed the strong euro and higher interest costs for the decline. Net revenue was down 2.9 percent to 15.13 billion euros ($23.39 billion). The company's mobile unit T-Mobile, meanwhile, reported revenue of 8.68 billion euros ($13.43 billion), holding stable from 8.65 billion ($13.37 billion) a year ago. Core profit, or adjusted EBITDA, was up 3.4 percent to 2.84 billion euros ($4.39 billion), up from 2.75 billion euros ($4.25 billion) year-on-year. Earnings Highlights: T-Mobile USA: — US operation is "continuing to demonstrate robust development of operations", though the weak US dollar dragged down revenues. Counted in euros, revenue in the first half of 2008 fell 0.8 percent to 6.96 billion euros ($10.76 billion). In dollars, revenue jumped 14.3 percent. Total revenues rose to $5.47 billion from $4.78 billion in the prior-year quarter. — T-Mobile USA added 668,000 net subscribers in Q2, with 525,000 being the more valuable contract customers. Still the figure was a 22.1 percent drop from 857,000 year-n-year compared to last year, which the network blamed on customers failing to renew their two-year fixed term contract contracts that were imposed on new customers in April 2006 for the first time. During Q2, the network added more than one million MyFaves customers, giving it a total of 6.5 million using the service. T-Mobile USA now has a total base of 31.5 million customers. — ARPU was $51, down slightly from $52 a year ago. Data ARPU including messaging--17 percent of total ARPU--came in at $8.60 in Q2, up slightly from $8.50 sequentially. More T-Mob Territories after the jump. Release | PDF Presentation | Financial Charts in PDF | Conference Call T-Mobile UK: — Total revenue dropped 13.8 percent in Q2 to 1.02 billion euros ($1.57 billion) compared with the same period in 2007. Measured in...
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  • German MoSo Aka-Aki Raises Investment To Go Full-Time

    German mobile social network Aka-Aki , which uses Bluetooth to do location-aware proximity networking and is also available in English, has raised a small investment of an undisclosed size from Crea Thor Ventures . The service started as a Berlin university diploma project but will, from August 15, have staff working full-time from an office in the city, Deutsche Startups says . This pretty mad explainer video is slightly confused but gets to the point in the end… ContentNext's EconCeleb Seminar examines what drives the economics of celebrity content. July 23, 2008 at the Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood. Learn more .
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  • Nokia Buys Location-Based Social Net Plazes

    Nokia ( NYSE: NOK ) is continuing on its social media related acquisition trail: it has now bought out Zurich and Berlin-based social networking service Plazes . Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in Dec. 2005, had seed funding from business angels such as Esther Dyson and Marc Andreessen and then raised its first round of $3.5 million from from Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. It has 13 employees. Plazes provides a location based social-activity service that people can use to plan, record, and share their social activities: why they are at a given location at a given time, whether in the past, present or future. Nokia will integrate this service into its own handsets. After an expected Q3 closing, Plazes will become part of Nokia's Services & Software unit. More details in release . Nokia has bought a slew of social networking and media services over the last year of so, including Twango, Enpocket, Loudeye and then its big buy of mapping company Navteq. Related Geo-Social Net Plazes Raises $3.5 Million Nokia To Buy Navigation/Digital Maps Company Navteq For $8.1 Billion ContentNext's EconCeleb Seminar examines what drives the economics of celebrity content. July 23, 2008 at the Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood. Learn more .
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  • Mobivention Acquires Download Content Business of Airmotion

    German mobile content vendor Mobivention has bought Download Content business of German-based Airmotion —the companies aren't releasing the financial details but Mobivention claims it will contribute to a "significant 6-digit increase to the company's operating income and result in 2008". Mobivention will merge the Download Content business (which delivers content such as wallpapers, MMS greeting cards and videos to mobile operators and leading portals) with its Graphics & Videos business, while Airmotion will focus on its publishing business unit, which provides mobile content and community services to portals such as Vodafone's ( NYSE: VOD ) Live or Alice .
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  • Earnings: Telefonica Profits Rise 22 Percent Boosted By Latin American Units

    Spanish telecoms group Telefonica ( NYSE: TEF ) reported a first quarter 22 percent rise in profits, boosted by its Latin American mobile phone units. Net income rose to 1.54 billion euros from 1.26 billion euros a year ago. Latin American sales climbed 10 percent to 5.16 billion euros, while revenues in Spain were up 1.9 percent to 5.1 billion euros. Telefonica Europe, which includes operations in the UK, Ireland, Germany and the Czech Republic, meanwhile, fell 1.7 percent to 3.47 billion euros. The company met analyst expectations, which put the company's revenues at 1.56 billion. In Europe, Telefonica saw non-SMS data (mobile web and the operator's portal services) use climb, with net additions in O2 UK being driven in part by the iPhone. Additional Highlights: — O2 UK added 21,152 mobile customers in the quarter, bringing its total subscriber base to 18.4 million, a growth of 3.7 percent year-on-year. A total of 206,385 net contract customers were added in the quarter, boosted in part by the iPhone . O2 UK's total ARPU was 31.1 euros, 5.5 percent higher than the first quarter last year if counted in pound sterling. — O2 UK data ARPU came in at 10.7 euros, 9.6 percent higher counted in pounds than the first quarter last year, boosted by test messaging, as well as a surge in mobile web use and O2 Active services. Revenues for mobile web and O2 Active use were up 55.7 percent year-on-year, counted in pounds. — O2 Germany added 535,994 customers, taking the mobile customer base to 13.0 million, an increase of 16.3 percent from last year. ARPU in the quarter was down 17.7 euros, 13.4 percent lower than the same quarter last year, which the operator blamed on a changing customer base, and the introduction of new tariffs and promotions, market competition and the termination rate cut of approximately 10 percent in 2007. (Deutsche Telecom called it "fierce price wars" in their Q1 earnings.) -- O2 Germany data revenues were also down. Data ARPU was 4...
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  • Earnings: Deutsche Telekom First Quarter Stable; T-Mobile Hit By Currency Declines

    German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom ( NYSE: DT ) reported stable first-quarter results with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 4.7 billion euros ($7.28 billion), virtually unchanged from the same period a year ago. Net revenue was down slightly by 3.1 percent to 15 billion euros, hit by the customers leaving their broadband and fixed line businesses, and the appreciation of the euro against the US dollar and pound sterling. Still, the results were in line with analyst expectations, and the company said it expects to hit its forecast for 2008 of an adjusted EBITDA of approximately EUR 19.3 billion and free cash flow of some EUR 6.6 billion. Highlights From the Earnings: — DT's mobile unit, T-Mobile scooped up 13.9 million customers in the quarter, with 3.4 million of them coming from its acquisition of Orange Nederland and the US network SunCom. Its total worldwide subscriber base stands at 123 million. — In Germany, T-Mobile Deutschland reported a 3.4 percent decline in revenue to 1.9 billion euros, and adjusted EBITDA fell 1.1 percent to 692 million euros. DT, which reported its subscriber base in Germany was up 12.3 percent to 37.1 million blamed the falling revenue on "fierce price wars." But new calling plans—including MyFaves and Max have begun generating "strong demand," while DT said new flat rate data plans for both cell phones and mobile broadband and its cooperation with Yahoo! ( NSDQ: YHOO ), which powers the search on its wen'n'walk portal has improved its "competitiveness" in the mobile web. — T-Mobile USA saw revenues hurt by the declining dollar . Revenue dipped slightly year-on-year by 0.2 percent to 3.5 billion euros, while adjusted EBITDA rose 3.3 percent to EUR 966 million. When measured in US dollars, however, revenue increased by 14.1 percent, and adjusted EBITDA was up 18 percent. DT attributed the growth to stable ARPU rates and "strong" customer growth...
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  • Deutsche Telekom Looking To Buy Sprint?

    Will Sprint ( NYSE: S ) Nextel find a buyer to get it out of its troubles? So says Der Spiegel ( via Reuters ), the German magazine: Deutsche Telekom ( NYSE: DT ), owner of T-Mobile USA here, is looking at possibly buying the third largest wireless carrier in U.S. As this point, it is being mulled over within DT, the story says, and no decision has been made. Previously analysts have speculated on such a move by DT, and another rumor said that Sprint may sell off Nextel and had hired Morgan Stanley for it.
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  • Earnings: Deutsche Telekom Posts $1.14 Billion Loss; Company Stablizing

    Fourth quarter earnings are out today for Deutsche Telecom. Europe's largest telecoms group reported a loss of 757 million euros ($1.14 billion) for the period ending December 2007, down from an 898 million euro loss a year ago. The company was expected to post a profit and blamed the loss on a 1.4 billion euro ($2.11 billion) charge it took related to its job-cuts program in the quarter, reports Bloomberg . Its adjusted net profit for the fourth quarter was down 2 percent from a year ago to €808 million ($1.2 billion), on sales that dipped 0.6 percent to 15.8 billion euros. After several quarters of losses, Deutsche Telekom ( NYSE: DT ) said the business was stabilizing. It forecast that EBITDA, excluding some items, will be around 19.3 billion euros, virtually unchanged from 2007. Deutsche Telekom has been struggling to shore up losses as fixed line customers in Germany abandon the company. In the fourth quarter alone, the lost 537,000 lines, which brings the year's total to 2.1 million fixed phone connections in Germany lost ( release ). Highlights from Q4 include: —The company's broadband/fixed network T-Home saw revenues decline by 8.0 percent in Germany in the 2007 financial year to EUR 20.1 billion. T-Home, however, kept its lead in Germany's broadband market, gaining just under 2 million new broadband DSL customers in 2007, bringing the total subscriber base to 9 million users. — In 2007, T-Mobile Deutschland, the firm's mobile business, signed up 962,000 new fixed-term contract customers, an increase of 20.7 percent compared with 2006. Overall, T-Mobile increased its subscriber base in Germany to almost 36 million at year-end and attributed its strong growth on its MyFaves calling plan and the iPhone. — T-Mobile's international divisions are once again coming to the company's rescue. Excluding Germany, revenue rose to EUR 27.1 billion in the 2007 financial year, an increase of 12.2 percent on 2006. Its US and UK businesses were growing...
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  • Facebook Gets Investment From German Online Entrepreneurs Samwer Brothers

    Facebook is continuing to raise money, though this one seems to be a relatively smaller amount and mainly strategic for European expansion: it has taken an undisclosed amount of investment from German Internet entrepreneurs, the three Samwer Brothers, who run their own venture capital firm, the European Founders Fund . The three brothers Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer started a German auction site which later became eBay ( NSDQ: EBAY ) Germany and then founded the mobile content giant Jamba, which was later bought by Verisign for $273 million. The company's portfolio includes supposed Facebook-rival LinkedIn as well , so would be interesting to see how this gets balanced.
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