they wanted to do a deal with portugal telecom, buy their assets in portugal, become a global player player. that deal is unraveling. they're selling off the assets. the c.e.o. had driven that deal with portugal telecom, and he stepped down in october. interesting that once he's gone, suddenly the company is able to perhaps undo some of the work that he had previously put in place. it was all renegotiated on the fact there was defaulted debt thrown in there. but i think it is a real turnaround of events. this last year, they had 100 million customers. they wanted to be in portugal, south america. now they're retrenching, going back to their home territory of brazil and selling off the portuguese assets. meanwhile, patrick is able to increase his deal. obviously a big player in mobile and france, 20 billion in excess will be paid for earlier this year, now splashing cash again, this time in telephone assets in portugal. as we were talking with matt, it's all about trying to be all things to all men. you don't want to be a cable player anymore, you want to be mobile as well, and this i

we haven't talked about altice and portugal telecom. telecom is constantly going on., big companies. beyond that, i think we are going to see more of this national level consolidation. been talked about as a place where that might happen. you could see it else is where -- elsewhere as well. newstt campbell, bloomberg deals reporter, just some breaking news. we have spanish pmi. that was a beat. continuing to impress the manufacturing sector in spain. italy, a disappointment. pmi unchanged at 49. that is contraction. forecast was 49.4. italy really struggling. manufacturing continues to disappoint. up next, we talk another area that struggles. a new term for the greek prime minister. he is considering accepting a full role for the imf's next a deal. we will talk on the situation after the break. ♪ >> welcome back. time to talk about greece. to country may stay attached imf economic support, dealing a blow to the prime minister who is pushing for greece to have a clean exit from this bailout. hans nichols nichols joins us from berlin. what would happen next if greece do

after drug he is paying for portugal telecom. paying for portugal telecom. what will they do with the money , after the break. >> billionaire patrick drahi has done his second big deal of the for $7.4uiring telecom billion. this will give more cash for the home market, brazil. drahi agreed to by the french wireless company. -- coutts could fetch a large price. they try to reverse a six-year lossmaking streak. stay with us. . / . >> welcome back to countdown. it is time for a check. the dollar has decided to turn around and traded lower. the yen has risen. there is a bit of a pause in the amazing trajectory. the wall street journal is carrying an article that the fed oil consider dropping a considerable amount of time. the language of rates may change. the market says six months between the dropping out and rates getting higher. the aussie dollar is still down. sincengest losing streak 1979. there you go. targets iron ore prices. australia bank says the aussie by 2016.ll bottom out a lower growth will cut rates in august of next year. that is the checklist. w

she wanted to buy portugal telecom holdings with actually is the holding company that owns a minority stake in the whole of oi. this could have been a way of luring the telecom shareholders. actually, i don't want to hive off my portuguese assets. i want to get cash right now and they want to stick and my overall interest. along, does get rid of the portuguese assets and focuses on brazil, she no longer wants to be buying into portugal holding company. >> you have got to reach 7 billion. we know qualitative easing. it wasn't going anywhere. >> the numbers just get bigger. caroline hyde with the latest on that portuguese telecom story. one of many we have been talking about. >> join us on twitter. follow danny, follow anna, follow me. tell us what you think about what danny is saying. go one. >> or whatever else. to follow us all on twitter. give us your twitter handle. >> today's company news, very quickly. a $1.2 billion round of equity funding to boost international expansion for uber. that gives the company a $40 billion valuation. and half billion dollars in funding since its debu

a different story of portugal telecom. shares off by around 1%. not worth all that much per share. keep that in mind. they've been dropping in lib upon after the billionaire santos dropped her bid for the firm. in a statement, her company said it has decided to withdraw the offer after, quote, careful consideration. >>> now, we were talking about asset classes and various moves that we've seen so far. the dollar against the russian ruble, very flat in trade over here in the corner. we've had a lot of volatility, as we've been saying in the ruble trade. people speculating there could be more to come. analysts that i've spoken to with regard to russia, especially over this last week, they're cautioning it could get harry with regard to some of the russian banks or financial groups who are now looking to raise more capital and having to potentially go to the states for that. the euro/dollar, 1.22. the dollar/yen, a little lower, as well. seem ma, more importantly, christmas eve. >> it is christmas eve, but it is not too late to show off your handy work with some festive foliage to imp

portugal, russia of course. we also see steel, energy, telecom in the tank.l, euro banks, copper, oil and most commodities. david: okay. you just took a little wind out of the sail of cheryl who knows a lot about airline industry. go ahead, cheryl. cheryl: thanks a lot, larry shover. airlines i won't say a loser but were quite a surprise for 2014. airline stocks have always been frankly bad investment and volatile. all this consolidation. all the oil prices lowering. i think for the year, airlines, even for 2015 obviously going to be a sector to watch. as far as winners go, you mentioned health care and then technology. >> yeah. cheryl: once again health care and technology. i'm hearing same trend will continue for 2015. david: we will see. gang, thank you very much. lee munson, larry shover and cheryl, don't go away, okay? stay here with me. cheryl: absolutely. david: in fact give us a tease. cheryl: i will talk more about technology now. it was a big year for technology, iphone six, google glass and even virtual reality headsets. we'll look at the winners a

the weekend altice confirmed its ambitions to become one of the largest telecom players in europe with this acquisition in portugal. they will pay 7.4 euros to buy pt portugal from a brazilian company it will finance this acquisition mostly via an increase in debt. that's the problem. even if the company becomes a major player in europe t has a huge debt level. it paid $13.4 billion euros, 7.4 billion euros in europe, and over the past year, the company spent $35 billion to make acquisitions in france, europe and the caribbean. that's the problem from the market point of view. the company has a huge debt level in april it was able to raise 12 billion euros, but until which point it will get the support from the market, that's the question. even if the market reaction today is widely positive after the announcement. >> thank you very much. >>> now our focus turns to asia. moody's has downgraded japan to an a1 rating from aa3 and put the outlook at stable. the ratings agency says the cut is down to uncertainty about japan's ability to cut fiscal defic deficit. in terms of market impact, the end hit a seven-year low