Hp Profile

Industry Update

MarketWatch: Telecoms

Telecoms Industry Update

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has completed the acquisition of Palm, a provider of mobile products, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash. HP's global scale and financial strength plus Palm's webOS experience, as well as its Pre and Pixi smartphone product lines, enhance HP's ability to participate in the smartphone and connected mobile device markets, the company said. Under Jon Rubinstein, former Palm chairman and CEO, the Palm global business unit will report to Todd Bradley, executive vice president of personal systems for HP. Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks. Mr Bradley said: "With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products. This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS." In France, telecommunications operator SFR, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi, has announced plans to continue to invest approximately E1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) annually to expand and improve the quality of its mobile and internet network, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The report states that the company's 3G mobile network covers 87% of the population in the country, surpassing the target set by the telecom regulator Arcep of 84%. The company said that the additional thirdgeneration (3G) frequencies it acquired earlier in 2010 will enhance its mobile network capacity. Additionally, the company plans to continue to invest approximately E150 million ($189.5 million) annually for the deployment of its ultra-high speed fiber optic network. Over in Africa, India-based telecommunications company Bharti Airtel has announced plans to invest approximately $600 million to expand its coverage in Nigeria and $200 million to expand its operations in...