Webwire: Sony slashes profit predictions; Vodafone set for VZW dividend

Sony has slashed its profit forecast for the financial year ending in March by 20 billion yen (€180 million) after swinging to a loss in the June quarter. Earnings were impacted by the cost of natural disasters in Japan in March, the shutdown of its PlayStation Network, and lower sales.
 
It's official. Vodafone is finally inline for another payday from its Verizon Wireless venture, taking $4.5 billion (€3.1 billion) of a $10 billion dividend pot, in its first payout since 2005.
 
France Telecom is considering selling off its Swiss, Austrian and Portuguese units - assets that together could be worth as much as €2 billion.
 
Mexico's Nextel will borrow $375 million (€262 million) from the China Development Bank to purchase 3G network equipment from Huawei.
 
US 4G start up LightSquared has signed a long-term LTE network sharing deal with Sprint Nextel. LightSquared will pay Sprint $9 billion (€6.3 billion) for equipment and spectrum hosting as well as credits to purchase up to 50% of LightSquared's spectrum capacity.
 
Logitech has slashed the price of internet-enabled Google TVs from $249 (€174) to $99, after revealing that more people are returning the sets than buying them.
 
Korea's KT has confirmed it will cut rates in response to rival SK Telecom's discounts and regulatory pressure.