BROTHERS AT WAR

A family feud has blocked a merger that could have created a major new global wireless player. Indian communications giant Reliance Communications gave up a proposed alliance with South Africa’s MTN ON July 18 when the animosity between the billionaire Ambani brothers boiled to the surface again. Older brother Mukesh Ambani, who controls the $7 billion Reliance Industries, squashed the deal when he declared he had the right of first refusal over his brother Anil’s 66 percent stake in Reliance Communications and began proceedings to  go to arbitration. The merger would have created an emerging markets behemoth with 115 million subscribers from South Africa to Iran to India and revenue over $10 billion, according to the Financial Times.

The Ambani brothers have been clashing since the death of their father in 2002 forced a breakup of the family conglomerate. Forbes has listed each brother as worth $40 billion. The argument could end up in court, raising concern in India that the clash will hurt India’s image as a place to do business.

FACEBOOK SAYS “NEIN!”

Facebook has accused a German Social networking site of intellectual property theft. In a suit filed in California, the social networking giant says Berlin-based StudiVZ is “copying the look, feel, features and services” of Facebook, according to the FT. The German site claims 10 million subscribers and was recently bought for an estimated €100 million by German media group Georg von Holtzbrinck. In its complaint, Facebook said the German site, the largest German-language social network site, simply changed its color scheme from Facebook’s blue to red. Facebook launched its own German-language site earlier this year.

SONY ERICSSON FIRES 2,000

Sony Ericsson is slashing 2,000 jobs after its profits plunged 97 percent in the second-quarter. The mobile phone joint venture announced the cuts Friday when it issued disappointing results. The company says the jobs would be eliminated in the next 12 months as it tries to to reduce operating costs by €300 million ($470 million).

The announcement came after the company reported net profits in the second quarter fell to €6 million ($9.5 million), a steep decline from €220 million in the same period a year ago. The company’s sales dropped about 9 percent to €2.8 billion ($4.4 million), from €3.1 million in the same quarter last year. The company had warned last month that competition in 2008 was getting tougher. By contrast, No. 1 mobile maker Nokia has predicted that handset sales this year could be up as much as 10 percent.

 
LES PAGES ELECTRONIQUES

French newspapers have been offered a technological helping hand by France Telecom. The wireless operator is testing an electronic reader that shows pages from France’s leading dailies including Le Monde, Les Echos and sports daily L’Equipe in black and white on a thin, book size device. The pages are downloaded over France Telecom’s Orange wireless network, the New York Times reports. The device, dubbed Read and Go would also offer ads, with revenue shared between the newspapers and France Telecom. Some 120 readers are testing the device.

Ad revenues in French dailies fell 9 percent last year. Only 42 percent of French adults read a newpaper regularly, compared to 48 percent for the U.S.  France Telecom has 24 million wireless subscribers in France.