French industrial groups Bouygues and Vivendi have reported weak first-quarter results as their telecoms subsidiaries continue to struggle in the competitive French market.

Sales at Bouygues Telecom fell by 16%, to €1.15 billion ($1.48 billion), compared with the first quarter of 2012, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were down by 28%, to €212 million.

Bouygues (Paris, France) swung to a net loss of €42 million from €35 million a year earlier on account of the telecoms setbacks.

Singaporean telecoms incumbent SingTel has reported a sharp fall in quarterly profits owing to losses booked on the sale of its stake in Pakistani operator Warid.

The operator said net income dropped by 33%, to S$868 million ($696 million), for the three months ending March 2013 due to the loss of S$225 million resulting from the sale of Warid.

Comparison with results in 2012 also looked unfavorable due to an exceptional tax credit of S$270 million booked in the final quarter of the previous financial year.

Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile service provider, said on Monday it would pay its parents Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc a dividend of $7 billion in June, surprising some analysts who had not expected a big payout.

The dividend comes amid mounting speculation Verizon (New York City, NY, USA) could buy Vodafone's stake in the venture if they can agree on a price. Reuters reported on April 24 that Verizon was preparing a $100 billion bid for the stake but investors have said they expect Vodafone (Newbury, UK) to seek a higher price.

SoftBank Corp is playing it rough in its attempt to keep Dish Network Corp from breaking up its $20.1 billion deal to take control of Sprint Nextel Corp.

The Japanese telecom company, which owns 33 percent of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (Hangzhou, China), has told banks that their financing of Dish's $25.5 billion rival offer for Sprint (Overland Park, KS, USA) could hurt their chances of landing a role in a highly anticipated public offering of the Chinese e-commerce giant, two sources familiar with the situation said.

China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator by subscribers, said its unlisted parent is beefing up its internal supervision after a government audit office highlighted problems in accounting practices and internal management.

The report by China's National Audit Office comes at a time when the new Chinese leadership led by President Xi Jinping has made tackling corruption a top priority, warning that the problem is so serious it poses a threat to the party's survival.

UK telecoms incumbent BT says it has slowed its sales decline on the back of rising demand for superfast broadband services.

The operator has reported revenues of £4.79 billion ($7.36 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2012, a fall of just 2% since the same period a year earlier.

The figure was boosted by a relatively strong performance at BT Retail amid continuing declines at the operator’s wholesale and IT divisions.

Even so, net profit slid by 6.3% to £591 million.

India’s Reliance Communications has beaten earnings expectations for the fourth quarter thanks to an increase in revenue from one-off gains.

The operator – controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani – said that net income fell to INR3.03 billion ($55.2 million) in the fourth quarter from INR3.32 billion in the same period last year, with revenues up 12% to INR59.56 billion.

Analysts polled by Reuters had been expecting net income of INR1.29 billion on revenues of INR53.47 billion.

Optical network equipment supplier Cyan Inc recovered early losses on its heavily traded market debut as investors look to its ability to reduce dependence on a single customer.

Nearly 3.5 million shares had been traded by 2.00 p.m. ET, making Cyan (Petaluma, CA, USA) the fifth most-traded stock on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday afternoon.

The Petaluma, California-based company priced 8 million shares in the offering at $11 each, the mid-point of its planned price range, giving it a market valuation of about $490 million.

German telecoms incumbent Deutsche Telekom has heralded signs of a turnaround in its US fortunes, and continued improvements in its domestic market, with net profit up 3.5%, to €564 million ($741 million), for the first three months of the year.

The bottom-line figure was boosted by a fall in depreciation and amortization costs in the USA.

Spain’s Telefonica has reported a 20.6% increase in net income for the first three months of the year, to €902 million ($1.19 billion), but says revenues dropped by 8.8%, to €14.14 billion, largely because of unfavorable exchange-rate movements.

Net profit surged because Telefonica (Madrid, Spain) had reported losses from associates in the prior-year quarter, and the Group’s operating income fell by 17.7%, to €2.07 billion.