Fri Dec 28, 2012 1:23pm EST

n">(Reuters) - British education and media publisher Pearson Plc has agreed to acquire a 5 percent stake in Barnes & Noble Inc's Nook Media unit for $89.5 million, sending shares of the bookstore operator up as much as 9.7 percent on Friday.

The Nook Media unit comprises Barnes & Noble's digital businesses — including the Nook e-reader and tablets and the Nook digital bookstore — and 674 college bookstores across the United States.

Pearson is the owner of the Financial Times newspaper and the Penguin Group publishing house.

The latest investment in Nook comes after Microsoft Corp agreed in April to invest $300 million in Barnes & Noble's digital and college businesses, a move that sent Barnes & Noble's shares up 79 percent at the time. Barnes & Noble and Microsoft completed that partnership in October.

After the Pearson deal, Barnes & Noble will own about 78.2 percent of Nook Media and Microsoft will own around 16.8 percent, the companies said.

"We always believed that Microsoft was as interested in Barnes & Noble's opportunity in education as it was in the digital consumer arena," said David Strasser, analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott.

"But after this investment from Pearson, it is more clear that Nook Media has its sight set on transforming the way education is administered in the US and around the world," he wrote in a note to clients.

Nook has been a revenue-driver since its launch in 2009 as readers buy more digital books, but product development and marketing costs to keep the devices competitive with Amazon Inc's Kindle have made it an expensive project.

Barnes & Noble said in November that the quarterly loss at the Nook division increased on higher spending on its e-readers and tablets to keep pace with larger rivals Amazon and Apple Inc.

Meanwhile, the top U.S. bookstore chain also said on Friday that sales in the crucial holiday season will come in below expectations, based on preliminary results and current sales trends.

Barnes & Noble said it would provide more details on its holiday sales on January 3. In November, it said that Nook device sales over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend - one of the busiest times of the year for U.S. retailers - doubled from last year, helped by promotions by Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp.

The 2012 holiday season may have been the worst for retailers since the 2008 financial crisis, with sales growth far below expectations, according to some early findings.

Shares of Barnes & Noble were up 6.1 percent at $15.23 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon, off an earlier high at $15.74. They were the fourth-largest gainer in percentage terms on the NYSE.

Pearson shares ended 0.3 percent lower at 1,193 pence in London.

(Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Abhishek Takle in Bangalore; editing by Joyjeet Das and Matthew Lewis)

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ZTE company logos are seen at an international software and information services exhibition in Nanjing, Jiangsu province September 6, 2012.

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DUBAI | Sun Oct 7, 2012 5:15am EDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Telecom QTEL.QA (Qtel) has nearly doubled its stake in Kuwait's No.2 operator Wataniya (NMTC.KW) to 92.1 percent, giving an instant boost to its bottom line and more control of subsidiaries in the high growth markets of Algeria and Tunisia.

Qtel, which operates in 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, will pay 519.1 million Kuwaiti dinars ($1.8 billion) at 2.6 dinars per share to raise its stake in Wataniya from 52.5 percent, it said in a statement on Sunday.

"For the past couple of years the geopolitical situation in the Middle East has made it riskier to buy into new assets, so Qtel has prioritized raising its stakes in existing units where it knows the market and the other shareholders," said Marc Hammoud, Deutsche Bank telecoms analyst, in Dubai.

Qtel consolidates Wataniya's net profit on a pro rata basis. In 2011, the firm made a net profit of 362 million dinars from its operations in Kuwait, Algeria, Tunisia, the Maldives, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Territories.

Wataniya owns 71 percent of Algeria's Nedjma and 75 percent of Tunisia's Tunisiana, with this pair's revenue up 33 and 116 percent respectively last year, according to Qtel's results.

Yet Kuwait accounted for about 90 percent of Wataniya's net profit last year, with the country's average revenue per user (ARPU) among the highest in the Gulf.

"Tariffs aren't expected to decline substantially and this was an opportunity for Qtel to up its stake in a cash cow," said Abhinav Purohit, an analyst at IDC in Dubai.

Wataniya has an estimated 39 percent share of Kuwait's mobile subscribers, with Zain (ZAIN.KW) claiming 41 percent and Saudi Telecom Co's 7010.SE (STC) affiliate, Viva, 20 percent.

"For many years, Wataniya did very well against Zain, but the market has changed since the launch of Viva, which has STC's backing and thus has been quite aggressive," said Abhinav. "This will allow Qtel to better deal with competition and also give it more lobbying power in Kuwait."

The latter is important because Kuwait does not have a telecom regulator. The Ministry of Communications is a de facto watchdog and also ultimately owns and operates the fixed-line infrastructure, which has long been earmarked for privatization.

"Qtel will be better placed as new opportunities emerge in Kuwait, especially in fixed lines," said Purohit.

Qtel did not state whom it bought the Wataniya shares, but on Saturday sources told Reuters the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) had agreed to sell its 23.5 percent stake.

Deutsche's Hammoud said the KIA's decision to sell its entire holding in Wataniya could set a precedent, with the government also owning stakes in Zain and Viva.

Bourse rules do not allow Qtel to force remaining shareholders to sell.

"There are no delisting plans and Qtel won't go to minorities with a better offer to buy them out," said a banking source familiar with the matter. "For Qtel, a 90-percent control is more than enough."

The Wataniya deal is Qtel's second major buy this year after agreeing in June to double its stake in Iraq's No. 2 operator Asiacell to 60 percent for $1.47 billion.

"Are we going to see more majority shareholders looking to buy-out minority stakeholders in the sector? My answer would be yes," added the banker.

Yet Qtel is unlikely to take full control of Tunisiana, despite the government set to offload its remaining 25 percent stake, because it wants to sell to a financial investor, rather than a telecom firm.

Qtel was advised by Barclays Capital (BARC.L) and the investment banking arm of National Bank of Kuwait (NBKK.KW) on the deal. Consulting firm Protiviti advised Wataniya.

(Writing by Matt Smith; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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n" readability="45">Oct 6 (Reuters) - Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire who loaned the New York Times Co (NYT.N) $250 million, has upped his stake in the company for the third time in two months.

Slim now holds 8.1 percent of Class A shares of the New York Times, up from 7.5 percent in August. [ID:nN1E77N0GL]

Through the fund Inmobiliaria Carso S A, Slim purchased about 850,000 shares at prices ranging from $5.84 to $6.00 per share on Oct. 3 and Oct. 4, according to a U.S. regulatory filing.

Shares of the New York Times closed up 12.7 percent at $6.75 on Thursday. This year to date, the shares are down 38.8 percent.

The stocks of newspaper companies McClatchy (MNI.N) and Media General (MEG.N) closed up 8.8 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively.

The New York Times repaid a $250 million to Slim on Aug. 15, about five months earlier than expected.

Slim holds warrants to buy 15.9 million Class A shares of the company that expire on Jan. 15, 2015. (Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska takes part in a discussion meeting at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg, June 22, 2012.

LONDON/MOSCOW | Thu Sep 27, 2012 10:32pm EDT

LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian billionaires Oleg Deripaska and Michael Cherney reached an 11th-hour settlement in a dispute over a billion dollar slice of aluminum giant RUSAL (0486.HK), shortly before they were due to give evidence in a drawn-out London court case.

The case, which had been expected to run well into 2013, was due to dwell on allegations of broken promises, criminality and mob rule while shining a light on the murky carve-up of lucrative smelters in the 'wild east' of post-Soviet Siberia.

"Mr. Deripaska announces that Mr. Cherney's litigation in London against him has been terminated," a spokesperson for Deripaska said in a brief statement. "Neither party will be making any further comment in relation to the litigation or matters raised therein."

Cherney's team released a nearly identical statement.

Cherney, born in Ukraine, raised in Uzbekistan, Jewish by creed and living in Israel since leaving Russia in 1994, alleged that metals mogul Deripaska reneged on a deal to buy him out of their joint aluminum business, RUSAL.

Well-connected Deripaska, who controls RUSAL and is a survivor of President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on oligarchs who once wielded great political power, denied having had any such business relationship with Cherney. He alleged he was the victim of a protection racket Cherney helped orchestrate - an accusation Cherney denied.

Cherney, who in 2008 won the right to bring his case against Deripaska in London's respected courts - the venue of choice for the warring Russian wealthy - was due to be cross-examined next Tuesday via video-link from Israel. An outstanding arrest warrant relating to a separate money laundering investigation prevents him from travelling to London.

Lawyers were intrigued at the last-minute deal.

"The experience in most of these cases is that they do go to trial because no one is willing to back down," said Philippa Charles, a litigation partner at law firm Mayer Brown.

"So it's interesting that the level of publicity has perhaps focused the minds of both parties on whether or not it is actually worth having their dirty linen washed in public."

THE POWER OF METAL

The Russian aluminum industry, like much of Russia's raw materials sector, came under the control of a few powerful oligarchs during the huge selloff of state assets that followed the collapse of communism and of the Soviet Union in 1991. The brutality of the business rivalry over aluminum smelters gave birth to the term 'aluminum wars'.

Cherney's case against Deripaska had overtones of a recent battle between Russian oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich, which in August helped ensure the concept of "krysha", or roof, was established in English courts.

Berezovsky's claim for $6 billion was dismissed and Judge Elizabeth Gloster described him as an 'inherently unreliable witness'. Abramovich had said he had paid money to Berezovsky for 'krysha' services of political cover and protection,

A "krysha", in Russian gangster parlance, can be either a figure who genuinely protects, in return for payment, the interests of a business in a sometimes brutal business world or it can refer to a racketeer extorting money by intimidation. The boundary between the two can, of course, be blurred.

The case, which began in July when both sides published opening statements and lawyers laid out the details of their arguments in front of Judge Andrew Smith, hinged in part on what was agreed in a London hotel 11 year ago.

Cherney and Deripaska agreed they met at the Lanesborough Hotel on a March morning in 2001, that they signed one document and that Deripaska handed Cherney $250 million. Everything else, even exactly when they first met each other, was disputed.

Deripaska says he made the payment to terminate a krysha arrangement with Cherney, partly because his business was now powerful enough, and his security forces strong enough, to confront criminal gangs.

Cherney says he had orally agreed a 50/50 partnership with Deripaska in 1993, which lasted until March 2001. He alleges Deripaska then agreed at the Lanesborough meeting to pay him a preliminary $250 million for his aluminum interests held by Deripaska - and also agreed to buy him out of the remainder of his stake within a few years.

RUSAL, the product of a slew of takeovers and mergers mainly in Siberia, where the hydro-electric power needed to fuel hungry smelters comes cheap, has emerged as Russia's only aluminum producer. Cherney alleged a 13.2 percent stake belongs to him.

Deripaska, a former physics student who started investing in aluminum assets in 1991 who has entertained top British politicians on his 70 million pound ($114 million) yacht, says he was forced into a "krysha" after being threatened by some of the country's most powerful criminal gangs in the mid-1990s.

Stories abound about such "protection" mobs attacking the wives and relatives of those who failed to do their bidding, launching fictitious criminal proceedings, violent takeovers of businesses or simply liquidating rivals and critics.

($1 = 0.6164 British pounds)

(Writing by Kirstin Ridley, Additional reporting by Clara Ferreira-Marques; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Mark Potter)

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