THE WRAP: This week Microsoft gave up trying to buy Yahoo

This week Microsoft gave up trying to buy Yahoo - for the time being at least. Yahoo's share price fell 15%.

Global suppliers of services to telecom operators saw revenue increases across the board in 2007 as the market grew to €45.13 billion, according to research. Ericsson held first place, but Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks gained ground.

Bellwether Cisco Systems met analysts' targets with sales of €6.357 billion, but profits fell from €1.232 billionin the same quarter last year to €1.168. Nortel's sales rose 11%, but restructuring is yet to work its magic across the board.

Troubled Chinese chip firm Commit Inc. closed its doors, having not paid staff for three months. Commit was the primary TD-SCDMA chip partner to handset maker Nokia, which has not yet launched a device.

Operators too are experiencing mixed fortunes. France Telecom's revenues were up, slightly, but Swisscom's fell by 7.2% as it absorbed the cost of acquiring FastWeb in Italy last year. Qwest's earnings plummeted by 35%, while Hong Kong group Hutchison Telecommunications International swung back into profit.

Despite turbulence in the market, some 16 telcos have signed up to build the Europe India Gateway 15,000km cable system, which willl cost over €456.91 million, It will link India and the UK, and some of its proposed 13 landing points will be in north Africa.

In the US Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have decided there is safety in numbers too and are to combine their wireless broadband units to create a €9.4 billion company. Rumours continue about Sprint preparing to sells its Nextel business to Deutsche Telekom.

According to the Financial Times, T-Mobile USA, the the fourth largest US mobile network, added 981,000 net new customers in the first quarter and reported a 14% increase in revenues to €2.984 billion.

BT Group is bundling a BlackBerry-style device with broadband in another attempt to establish a credible mobile offering. Commentators were underwhelmed.

Vodafone will offer the iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

Russian mobile advertising company Gigafone has plans to move into Europe and south east Asia, eschewing the telecoms industry's obsession with relevance and targeting ads in favour of volume - attaching ads to incoming calls and texts.