Business news with words acquisition+billion+phone. 5 news.

VIVENDI'S SA's SFR phone unit has offered to buy the rest of Neuf Cegetel for 4.5 billion euros (US$6.5 billion) to challenge France Telecom SA in the market for combined fixed-line, Internet and mobile services. SFR, which owns 40.5 percent of Neuf, will pay 34.50 euros a share for the 29.5 percent stake held by Louis Dreyfus & Cie, the commodities firm that helped found Neuf a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. SFR will bid 36.50 euros for the remaining shares in the market. The prices include the 2007 dividend. The acquisition of Neuf Cegetel, France's second-largest fixed-line phone company, adds 3.1 million high-speed Internet customers for SFR and more than 3 billion euros in annual revenue. SFR, Vivendi's largest business, has about 34 percent of the French mobile market, compared with France Telecom's 45 percent. "This would create a more formidable competitor," Jerry Bellman, analyst at Kepler Equities in Paris, said. "For SFR this is a defensive move,

VimpelCom, Russia’s second-largest cellphone company, has offered to buy a rival, Golden Telecom, for about $4.2 billion to create Russia’s first integrated mobile and fixed-line provider. VimpelCom offered $105 a share for the Internet, voice and data provider, 3.5 percent higher than the closing price Friday, the companies said. They are “in discussions regarding the potential acquisition of all the outstanding common stock” of Golden Telecom, according to the statement. VimpelCom, which had more than 61 million subscribers at the end of October in Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Georgia, wants to branch out in more markets and into services like broadband. Golden Telecom said Nov. 8 it had 394,900 broadband subscribers in Russia.

THE country's biggest listed electronics maker is to sell its loss-making computer business to an overseas investor. The Shenzhen-listed TCL Corp said yesterday it would dispose of its PC operations with the sale of an 82-percent stake in the unit. Shares of TCL stopped trading yesterday to await a further announcement. TCL's computer unit lost 67.8 million yuan (US$8.9 million) last year on sales of 2.14 billion yuan, the Huizhou-based company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange earlier. The move follows Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business and Acer's purchase of Gateway. TCL made a profit in the first half of the year, helped by cost cutting. Its net profit was 45.1 million yuan compared with a net loss of 746.4 million yuan a year earlier. After the sale of the PC unit, TCL will focus on the TV and telephone business. The company recently announced a deal to sell the BlackBerry phone in China next year.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mobile phone giant Nokia said Monday that it has agreed to buy Navteq for $78 a share, or $8.1 billion in total. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to customary closing conditions. Navteq provides digital map information for automotive navigation systems, mobile navigation devices, Internet-based mapping applications, and government and business solutions. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. Nokia said that the deal is not expected to affect share buybacks or its future cash distribution strategy. The deal is expected to be dilutive to Nokia earnings in 2008 and 2009 on a reported basis. On a cash basis, Nokia expects the deal to be only slightly dilutive in 2008 and slightly accretive in 2009. Nokia shares fell 2.6%.

James Dondero, president of Highland Capital, resigned as a director of Leap Wireless. His departure comes as the wireless phone company considers a $5.5 billion acquisition offer.