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(Telecompaper) US fixed-line operators Consolidated Communications and SureWest have agreed to a merger. Consolidated will acquire SureWest for USD 23 per share in cash or stock, or a total USD 340.9 million excluding debt. This is a 47 percent premium on SureWest's last share price. The combined company will have operations in six states and 1,775 employees, with pro forma revenues of USD 620 million for the twelve months ending 30 September 2011. SureWest serves 130,000 residential subscribers and 15,700 commercial businesses in the greater Kansas City and Sacramento regions over its own fibre networks, which pass in total 321,700 homes. Consolidated offers voice, data and video services to residential and business customers in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas. Consolidated said the deal will combine its own strong cash flow with SureWest's growth strategy in fibre services. The transaction is expected to generate annual operating synergies of USD 25 million and capex savings of USD 5-10 million by the end of the first full year of the combination. The deal remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

After a long streak of skyrocketing earnings, HTC's climb towards the stars seems to have stalled. Q4 was not kind to the company and CFO Winston Yung thinks he knows the reason why. During the today's earnings call Yung admitted that HTC "dropped the ball" with its selection of LTE devices. He conceded that the bulky handsets simply failed on a design and spec level -- especially when it came to battery life -- and were not selling nearly as well as expected. Unsurprisingly, the company promises to turn its fortunes around with the next product cycle, which is rumored to kick off at MWC with the Ville.

HTC admits its bulky, quick-dying LTE phones kinda suck originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today's been all about the white phones, and Nokia's new Lumia matches that glossy finish we saw on its near-identical twin, the white N9. Here, opposing the matte goodness of the rest of Lumia 800 family, the unibody shell has an almost-enamel feel on what we've heard is still polycarbonate material. From our brief play with the device, it's looking to be a pretty pervasive color choice to go alongside that pitch-black AMOLED screen. We know the phone is set to arrive later this month, blessing fans of blanc in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and another handful of European countries. See how its good looks stack up against the rest of the Lumia rainbow in our hands-on gallery below.

Nokia Lumia 800 White hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Portable media player volume sales increased by 2% in 2010. Sales grew very strongly over the review period with a CAGR of 12%, largely driven by the craze for Apple’s iPod and its many imitators. During 2010 the mobile phone category began to take its toll on portable media players as the strong penetration of smartphones began to eat away at certain portable media players, especially MP3 players. However, thanks to new technologies such as e-readers and portable multimedia players the entire...

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