Marlin Equity Partners Acquires Sycamore Networks

Marlin Equity Partners, a Los Angeles California-based private investment firm with over US$1 billion of capital under management, completed its acquisition of Sycamore Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Sycamore Networks has been relaunched as a private company focused on intelligent optical networking and multiservice access solutions.

The new Sycamore is headed by John Scully (president and CEO), who previously served as vice president of worldwide sales and support at Eastern Research. Before that, Mr. Scully held senior management positions at Test Link/Tel Link, Datatel, Cray Communications, and Data Decisions. Mr. Scully holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio.

http://www.sycamorenetworks.com

 In December, Marlin Equity Partners agreed to acquire Nokia Siemens Networks' Optical Networks business. Marlin plans to form a new optical company to be headquartered in Munich, Germany with operations around the world. This new optical company will be led by its existing management team with Herbert Merz nominated as chief executive officer. Up to 1,900 employees – mainly in Germany, Portugal and China – from the optical business unit and related functions are expected to transfer to the new company. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.

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TeliaSonera's CEO Resigns Following Uzbekistan Report

Lars Nyberg resigned as President and CEO of TeliaSonera following an outside review of  Mannheimer Swartling regarding illegal business practices by the firm in Uzbekistan.  While the review did not find evidence that TeliaSonera engaged in bribery or participated in money laundering, it did criticize TeliaSonera for not vetting its investment partners in Uzbekistan.

TeliaSonera's Board of Directors has appointed Per-Arne Blomquist as acting President and CEO.

http://www.teliasonera.com

• In October 2012, TeliaSonera's Board of Directors hired the law firm Mannheimer Swartling to investigate whether TeliaSonera's investment in a 3G license, frequencies and number blocks in Uzbekistan in 2007 involved corruption or money laundering. Later, the investigation was expanded to include more recent investments in connection with TeliaSonera's operations in Uzbekistan.

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BT Super Fast Broadband Passing 100,000 Premises

BT's fibre broadband now passes more than 13 million premises across the UK and the network is passing around 100,000 additional premises every week.

BT said take-up is growing strongly.  Around 1.25 million homes and businesses now using the fibre broadband service. The company is preparing to push into TV and Sport later this year.

"Our engineers have worked tirelessly following some of the wettest weather on record. Not only did they complete a record number of field visits in the quarter, they also connected a further 281,000 homes and businesses to broadband and helped us grow the number of landlines. BT Global Services has also done well securing £1.9bn of new orders, up 17%.

http://www.btplc.com

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