What’s up with…. Cellnex, Veon, Jio Platforms

• M&A pumps up Cellnex sales
• Veon notes Covid-19 pressure
• Another stake sold in Jio Platforms

Here’s what tweaked our Friday news feelers this week…

• Cellnex, the towers company that has been on a European M&A spending spree in the past couple of years, has reported a 49% year-on-year increase in first quarter revenues to €358 million. For more details, see this announcement.

• Veon, one of the world’s biggest mobile operators with more than 210 million customers across 10 markets, reported a slight dip in first quarter revenues to just more than $2 billion and withdrew its guidance for the full year, noting there is “presently significant pressure on our operational performance.” For more details, see this quarterly update.

• Everyone wants a piece of Jio Platforms, the Reliance Industries subsidiary that runs Indian mobile services giant Reliance Jio, it seems. Only days after Facebook and then Silver Lake took stakes in the digital technology and communications unit, Vista Equity Partners has stepped up with an INR 110.4 billion ($1.46 billion) investment for a 2.32% stake. Check out the details here.

• “We haven’t experienced abuse like this before,” an Openreach engineer told The Guardian newspaper, which reports that there were almost 50 incidents of ‘abuse’ from morons convinced that the UK’s 5G build-out was behind the spread of the coronavirus. Telecom engineers have been assaulted, spat on, and forced to flee when confronted by angry groups, it’s alleged. A single weekend in early May saw 20 mobile phone masts across the UK torched or otherwise vandalised. WTF? 

• ADTRAN reported a dip in first quarter revenues to $114.5 million and reported a net loss for the period, though Chairman and CEO Tom Stanton noted the results “came in largely as anticipated,” with the Covid-19 pandemic leading to a “challenging supply chain environment.” On a more positive note, though, Stanton highlighted that “several Tier 1 operators have recently selected ADTRAN as their software-defined access platform and solution integration partner for their next generation fiber networks.”

• BSS and customer engagement specialist CSG held up well during the first three months of this year, with revenues roughly in line with the same period a year ago at $245.6 million. “Our first quarter results were solid, illustrating that, while CSG is not immune from the impact of this pandemic, we are in a good position to weather this storm,” noted President and CEO Bret Griess. 

• The staff, TelecomTV