Telecoms Down As Traders Digest Deal, Earnings Reports -- Telecoms Roundup

Shares of telecommunications companies ticked down as traders digested earnings and deal reports.

Altice, the telecoms and cable holding company owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi, reported a rise in quarterly core operating profit, driven by a strong performance from its businesses in the U.S. that it is preparing for an initial public offering.

Shares of Straight Path Communications fell after Verizon Communications agreed to buy the wireless-spectrum holder for about $3.1 billion, ending an unusually intense bidding war, sparked by the need for specialist spectrum in new 5G networks. Straight Path founder Howard Jonas, who spun the business off from the long-distance telephone provider IDT, made his name when he sold an interest in an Internet telephony company Net2Phone to AT&T, the other company that had vied for Straight Path, in 2000, The Wall Street Journal reported.

British carrier BT Group, buffeted by an accounting scandal at its Italian business and other issues, said it would cut 4,000 jobs and pay no bonus to its chief executive.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2017 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)