Global vendor strategies - 14/12/05

Italtel plans an initial public offering of shares by the end of the first half of 2006.

Thomson (France) proposes to buy Thales Broadcast & Multimedia (a unit of Thales group) for €130m. The deal will give Thomson what it lacks: IPTV middleware; video-on-demand (VOD) server technology; mobile TV content delivery and management capabilities;