VIENNA | Wed Jan 2, 2013 7:36am EST

VIENNA (Reuters) - T-Mobile Austria confirmed it had filed an appeal against the allocation of radio frequencies that will result from Hutchison Whampoa's takeover of Orange Austria, in a move that could derail the 1.3 billion euro ($1.7 billion) deal.

A source familiar with the matter had told Reuters last month that the Deutsche Telekom unit planned the appeal over fears it will be at a disadvantage to rivals who will have a head start of up to a year in building next-generation LTE networks.

The ability to build an LTE network, which will offer data speeds up to 10 times those now available, will be a key competitive advantage in Austria's hard-fought telecoms market.

The country's four operators are engaged in a price war as they fight over a population of just 8.4 million, with all-inclusive, no-strings offers available for as little as 7 euros per month.

T-Mobile said on Wednesday it had lodged an appeal on December 31 with Austria's higher administrative court against the decision of the country's telecom control commission, the TKK, for the transfer of frequencies that will accompany the merger.

It said it had asked for the transfer to be put on hold while its legal case is being heard. It said it expected the court to decide within days on whether to grant an injunction in the case, which it thought could last until March or April.

A court spokesman said the court had not yet received the appeal.

($1 = 0.7585 euros)

(Reporting by Angelika Gruber and Michael Shields; Editing by David Holmes)

View the original article here

WASHINGTON | Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:02pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Sunday confirmed the head of the Federal Housing Administration in her position despite mounting losses the mortgage funding agency that some fear could eventually lead to a taxpayer bailout.

In a 69-24 vote, the Senate confirmed Carol Galante as an assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Galante, a former affordable housing developer in San Francisco, had been running the FHA in an acting capacity since July 2011.

The FHA, a key source of mortgage funding for first-time home buyers and those with modest incomes, backs $1.1 trillion in U.S. home mortgages. Last month it reported a projected shortfall of $16.3 billion due to souring loans that it insured during the housing market downturn during the past several years.

An independent audit suggested that the FHA would require taxpayer funding for the first time in its 78 years, though that won't be decided until February when the Obama administration releases its next budget proposal.

In response to the shortfall, the agency raised the premiums it charges on guaranteed loans by one-tenth of a percentage point, adding, on average, about $13 to a borrower's monthly mortgage payment.

Senator Tim Johnson, the Democrat who heads the Senate Banking Committee, said Galante was "highly qualified" and attributed the FHA's problems to legacy loans that were still threatening the agency's finances.

"It is important that the FHA have a confirmed management team in place to continue oversight of these legacy loans," Johnson said prior to the vote.

Following the collapse of the private subprime mortgage market during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, FHA-backed loans took over as the sole financing source for nearly all of the lower end of the U.S. housing market, which has continued to struggle.

The deteriorated finances had caused some Senate Republicans not to support Galante, who prior to her current position ran multifamily housing programs for HUD.

She joined the agency in 2009 after serving as president of Bridge Housing Corp, the largest non-profit developer of affordable housing in California.

But Republican Senator Bob Corker, who had been one of her biggest critics, publicly dropped his opposition to her confirmation after she sent him a letter pledging to take certain steps to improve the agency's finances, including tightening lending standards for buyers with lower credit scores and limiting the amount of money that could be borrowed in the FHA's reverse-mortgage program.

(Additional reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Eric Walsh)

View the original article here

Mike Lynch, Founder and Chairman of Autonomy Corporation, poses for photographers at an awards ceremony in central London March 13, 2008.

LONDON | Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:32am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Mike Lynch, the founder of the software firm sold to Hewlett-Packard last year in a deal tainted by accusations of accounting fraud, said he would defend the company's accounts to U.S. Federal investigators.

HP confirmed in a filing late on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Autonomy's books.

The PC and printer maker bought the British company for $11 billion last year to lead its push into the more profitable software sector.

Autonomy did not deliver the growth expected, resulting in Lynch's departure earlier this year.

But worse was to come last month when HP wrote off some $5 billion of the company's value and accused its former management of accounting improprieties that inflated its value.

The Silicon Valley company said it had passed information from a whistleblower to the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and Britain's Serious Fraud Office.

"On November 21, 2012, representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice advised HP that they had opened an investigation relating to Autonomy," it said in the filing.

"HP is cooperating with the three investigating agencies."

Lynch launched a robust defense of his track record almost immediately after HP made the accusations.

He said on Friday that he was still waiting for a detailed calculation of HP's $5 billion writedown of Autonomy's value and a published explanation of the allegations.

"Simply put these allegations are false, and in the absence of further detail we cannot understand what HP believes to be the basis for them," he said in a statement.

"We continue to reject these allegations in the strongest possible terms. Autonomy's financial accounts were properly maintained in accordance with applicable regulations, fully audited by Deloitte and available to HP during the due diligence process."

Lynch said he had not been approached by any regulatory authority, but he would co-operate with any investigation and looked forward to the opportunity to explain his position.

HP has refused to concede to Lynch's demands for more information about the allegations.

"While Dr. Lynch is eager for a debate, we believe the legal process is the correct method in which to bring out the facts and take action on behalf of our shareholders," it said in response to an open letter from Lynch last month

"In that setting, we look forward to hearing Dr. Lynch and other former Autonomy employees answer questions under penalty of perjury."

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

View the original article here