Top executives are gathered in Barcelona for the annual Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. Following are the top stories from the conference, which concludes Friday. Shaky European markets and scarce capital had the heads of the largest European wireless firms unanimously calling for more consolidation. "Consolidation will eventually be here," said Gervais Pellissier, deputy chief executive of France Telecom (FTE). Speaking about the company's home market, Pellissier said the large number of competitors was dragging down profit for everyone. That scarcity of capital makes it hard to build next-generation networks for consumers. VODAFONE GROUP PLC (VOD), the U.K. mobile operator, will focus on controlling costs amid bleak expectations for the economy next year, the company said. "The economy, I don't think, is going to be fantastic next year," said Chief Executive Vittorio Colao. "I will take a big look at costs now for next year because I don't know exactly where the economy will be." VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. (VZ), the U.S. telecommunications giant, sees no problem with the pending tie-up between two of the country's biggest wireless operators, T-Mobile USA and AT&T Inc. (T), as long as it doesn't come with increased regulation, the company said. Francis Shammo, chief financial officer for Verizon, said the U.S. industry needs consolidation, but specified that it should come without added regulation from the Federal Communications Commission. WPP PLC (WPP.LN), the world's largest advertising company by revenue, Thursday said organic revenue could grow 4% in 2012, despite pressure on the market from economic uncertainty. Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said WPP's prospects for next year are "not wonderful," but added that they are "not that gloomy" either. ARM HOLDINGS PLC (ARM.LN), the U.K. microchip designer, is bullish on next year's prospects as it eyes continued strong growth in smartphones despite the severe economic downturn in mature markets, its senior management said. "Looking into 2012, prospects are quite bright" and "visibility is very good," ARM Chief Financial Officer Tim Score said. SAP AG (SAP), the German business software company, said it is open to buying businesses in new categories of business software, as well as expanding current businesses via acquisition. SAP is a leading provider of business application and business intelligence software, which makes up the majority of its revenue. It also recently launched efforts in mobile business software, in-memory computing and cloud computing. "If you see us acquiring, we would be acquiring to accelerate our pace in one of these new categories or open a new category," said Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-chief executive of the Walldorf, Germany, company. AXEL SPRINGER AG (SPR.XE), the German publisher, expects Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) share of the revenue generated when it sells third parties' digital content to decline as more competitors emerge, Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner said. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) charges publishers less for content sold via its Kindle tablet than Apple does through its App Store, Doepfner noted. TELIASONERA AB (TLSN.SK), the Swedish telecommunications firm, is hopeful of a resolution to the boardroom deadlock at Turkey's biggest mobile operator Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS (TKC) by the end of the year, its TeliaSonera financial chief Per-Arne Blomquist said. The company is the largest shareholder in Turkcell with a 38% stake. Resolving the deadlock there is a priority for the company, Blomquist said. TELIASONERA's budget Spanish unit Yoigo has benefited from the tough economic environment as consumers have sought out cheaper phone deals, and is on track to meet its targets, TeliaSonera's chief financial officer said. "The general environment in Spain is tough, but since we are a low-price player we may even have benefited from this difficult environment," Per-Arne Blomquist said. TOMTOM NV (TOM2.AE), the Dutch navigation equipment maker, doesn't expect the shrinkage seen in the personal navigation device market to accelerate next year, Chief Executive Harold Goddijn said. However, he declined to put a figure on how much he expects the PND market to decline next year before seeing fourth-quarter sales figures. The final quarter is crucial for consumer electronics because of the Christmas holiday shopping season. HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS ORGANIZATION SA (HTO.AT) is taking precautionary measures just in case Greece leaves the euro zone, the company said. "We've been looking to see what kind of actions we need to take now in order to safeguard ourselves for that situation," said Kevin Copp, chief financial officer for the Greek operator, known at OTE for short. OTE's chief executive said he is confident that Greek regulators will approve the merger of Vodafone Greece and Greece's No. 3 operator Wind Hellas. "We believe [the regulator] will approve the merger. If [it] doesn't approve this merger, very soon [Greece] will have another bankrupt company," Michael Tsamaz said at the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference in Barcelona. MILLICOM INTERNATIONAL CELLULAR SA (MIC-SDB.SK), the Stockholm-listed emerging markets mobile network operator, prefers to consolidate rather than get consolidated, its chief executive Mikael Grahne said. In the third quarter, Millicom's average revenue per user in Africa fell by 10% year-on-year, as competition on some of its markets intensified. -By Archibald Preuschat, Sven Grundberg and Christopher Lawton, Dow Jones Newswires
