Friday Papers: Nokia Siemens in talks to buy Motorola arm - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Motorola is in talks to sell its network infrastructure unit to Nokia Siemens Networks in a deal that could be worth about $1.5bn.

*  NTT has agreed an all-cash deal to buy Dimension Data, valuing the UK-listed South African information technology services group at £2.1bn; under the deal, Dimension Data will delist from the LSE and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange.

* Piraeus Bank, the fourth-largest Greek lender, on Thursday made an unsolicited cash bid of €701m for the state’s stakes in two loss-making domestic banks.

* A £350m offer from Horizon for Crest Nicholson was in jeopardy on Thursday night after advisers to the debt-burdened housebuilder told its lender-owners to reject the bid as too low.

* Goldman Sachs’ $550m settlement with the US Securities & Exchange Commission marks the steepest penalty ever doled out by the regulator against Wall Street.

* KKR finally listed on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, where it made a low-key debut in a down market; the shares opened at $10.50 and were little changed by midday, giving the firm a value of more than $7bn.

* Kerrie Kelly has been pushed out as head of the Association of British Insurers after less than six months in the post.

* Google’s earnings fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts in its latest quarter; net revenues in the second quarter of the year, after deducting the traffic acquisition costs it pays to other websites, rose 24 per cent to $5.1bn; it reported a pro-forma operating profit margin of 39 per cent; headcount rose by nearly 1,200.

* Anthony Bolton bis staking his reputation on a £460m bet that the Chinese economy is shifting away from exports and towards domestic consumption.

* Sage, one of the UK’s largest software companies, is poised to appoint Guy Berruyer as chief executive to replace Paul Walker.

* Ford is changing senior managers ahead of its sale of Volvo.