Ooredoo Kuwait announced today the appointment of Hani ElKukhun, as chief operating officer. With almost 20 years of experience, ElKukhun has a wealth of international telecommunications experience having worked for companies including Zain, Telus Canada, Cisco and Xerox. ElKukhun was director of sales at Telus Canada, GM Officer Solutions at Xerox, GM Kuwait and Bahrain at Cisco for seven years, and spent the last two years as COO at Zain Kuwait.

ElKukhun replaces Peter Kaliaropoulos, who was appointed to the position in December 2013 from Batelco, but had to leave Ooredoo for personal reasons.

Google has reported surging revenues that beat analysts’ forecasts, and a profit that was up by a quarter, but missing forecasts.

The company said that its second-quarter revenues rose by 22 per cent to US$16 billion, excluding the Motorola Mobility division, while profits were up by 26 per cent to US$3.5 billion.

Excluding the soon to be sold Motorola Mobility division, the company indicated that costs are also rising faster, as Google invested heavily in new data centres and hired an additional 2,414 staff in the three month period, taking its total workforce to 48,584 employees.

One significant change in headcount was the announcement that its chief business officer, Nikesh Arora is leaving the company to join Japan’s Softbank.

In Google’s own mobile operations, growth of so-called "other revenue" jumped by 53 per cent, led by increased mobile app sales, where Google creams off a percentage of the sales of third-party apps.

In terms of its own websites, the company said that the volume of clicks on adverts served up when people carry out a search rose by a third on its own websites, although the value of each click has continued to fall.

The contrary report is due to the increased use of mobile devices, where advertising revenues are a fraction of the value of their desktop counterparts.

This marked the 11th consecutive quarter of decline in the average cost per click, although the decline is slowing thanks to the rise of tablet use.

TeliaSonera saw a drop in sales and profit for the second quarter of the year, as its Yoigo business in Spain continued to be a cause for concern.

The company said it is reviewing its position in Spain as the business remains sub-scale with a seven per cent market share, although margins did recover in Q2. Yoigo saw net sales fall 19.3 per cent year-on-year, despite subscriptions increasing by 5.4 per cent.

Overall, second quarter net sales in reported currency fell 1.2 per cent to SEK25.0 billion (US$3.65 billion), while net income decreased by 12.1 per cent to SEK3.55 billion.

The Q2 results are the first since the company moved to a country-based operating model in April. TeliaSonera’s strategic framework has the clear aim of enhancing core operations and to “explore opportunities in closely related areas”.

In Eurasia, where the group was caught up in controversy over its earlier conduct in Uzbekistan, the new management team has “increased focus on governance, control and new business initiatives”. Net sales for the region in local currencies increased 6.7 per cent, although it fell three per cent when measured in reported currency.

Eurasia delivered strong profitability with solid development in Kazakhstan and Nepal. Organic revenue growth was seven per cent, fuelled by a 35 per cent increase in data revenue, which accounts for 14 per cent of total sales in the region.

In Europe, the company’s net sales decreased 6.6 per cent. More positively, the number of subscriptions increased while churn decreased in all Nordic markets. The operator’s priority is to improve its competitive position in its Nordic and Baltic markets.

Zain Saudi Arabia reported a significant increase in EBTIDA during the first half of 2014, reflecting a 22 per cent growth rate to reach SAR564 million (US$ 150 million) up from SAR 464 million in H113.

The company succeeded in raising its EBTIDA margin to 18 per cent, up from 14 per cent during the same period of last year.

The company narrowed net loss by 11 per cent, to SAR329 million for Q214. A year-on-year 16 per cent reduction in net loss was achieved during H114.

Gross margin increased to 51% in H114, up from 47% in the same period of 2013.

Zain Saudi Arabia reported a 107 per cent year-on-year rise in the number of mobile data customers in Q2-2014, and a 31 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter. Data traffic on the network increased significantly during the second quarter, up 564% year-on-year and 64 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The increase in mobile data customers and usage contributed to a growth in mobile data revenues during Q214 by 94 per cent year-on-year, and six per cent quarter-on-quarter. Zain’s 4G network coverage also expanded to cover 52 per cent of domesticated areas during the quarter, with an increase in network locations, reaching 6,113 at the end of the quarter.

Microsoft confirmed its anticipated job cuts as it looks to “simplify its organisation and align the recently acquired Nokia Devices & Services business with the company’s overall strategy” – at the cost of 18,000 positions over the next year.

The move is Microsoft’s largest ever round of layoffs and affects 14 per cent of its overall workforce.

The company said 12,500 professional and factory positions will be taken out through “synergies and strategic alignment” of the former Nokia business acquired early this year. It is believed that Microsoft gained around 30,000 staff from the deal, meaning the cuts represent a significant portion of this number.

Notably, in an email to staff, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said that in order to “win in the higher price tiers” the company’s devices activities will “focus on breakthrough innovation that express and enlivens Microsoft’s digital work and digital life experiences”.

And Nadella has also taken his axe to the Android-powered Nokia X product line, with “select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows”.

“This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps,” he wrote.

Stephen Elop, who heads up the device activities, wrote that it is “particularly important to recognise that the role of phones within Microsoft is different than it was within Nokia.”

“Whereas the hardware business of phones within Nokia was an end unto itself, within Microsoft all our devices are intended to embody the finest of Microsoft’s digital work and digital life experiences, while accruing value to Microsoft’s overall strategy,” he continued.

Microsoft will merge the former Smart Devices and Mobile Phones business units of Nokia into one, under current smartphone head Jo Harlow. This group will be tasked with “the success of our Lumia products, the transition of select future Nokia X products to Lumia and for the ongoing operation of the first phone business”.

Microsoft expects to incur charges of between US$1.1 billion and US$1.6 billion over the next four quarters, including US$750 million to US$800 million for severance and related benefit costs, and US$350 million to US$800 million of asset-related charges.