During his tenure as Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt attended a private meeting in Davos with a group of senior telecom executives and tried to crack a joke. “Why don’t you make all of the investment and we will take all the profits,” quipped Schmidt, according to a story making the rounds in the tech industry. Nobody in the room laughed. His stab at humour hit too close to home.

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Plans by Deutsche Telekom and France Telekom to merge their U.K. phone units is a sign of further consolidation in the industry as financial pressure increases on European phone companies. The deal, announced Sept. 8, would create the U.K.’s largest cellular operator, catapulting the merged entity ahead of Telefonica’s 02 unit and pushing rival Vodafone to number three in its home market.Read more