Vodafone has agreed to sell its 44% shareholding in French mobile network operator SFR to Vivendi.

The deal is worth around £6.8 billion, with £4 billion being 'returned' to Vodafone shareholders through a share buy-back. Existing commercial co-operation between Vodafone and SFR will be maintained through a Partner Market agreement.

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to this week's news summary from TheFonecast.com.

In Wednesday's podcast Iain joked that we ought to have a regular Olympics news story because everyone else was talking about the event constantly. Well, following the headlines about introducing WiFi to tube stations in time for London 2012 comes another Olympic news story.

There won't be mobile phone coverage on the London Underground in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. It's reported that the issue of funding has caused talks to collapse.

However, plans to roll out WiFi to over 100 tube stations are going ahead.

Samsung and Visa have announced plans to introduce mobile payments to the UK in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Both companies are sponsors of the London 2012 event.

There'll be a Samsung Olympic and Paralympic Games mobile phone provided to athletes and also available to the general public. The phone will also require a Visa-enabled SIM card to enable NFC contactless payments.

Acer CEO and company president Gianfranco Lanci has resigned from the company today.

Company chairman JT Wang has taken over this role in the interim, while Walter Deppeler - previously deputy president of Acer Europe, Middle East, Africa - has been appointed as the new Acer EMEA President