Freeserve for sale, Redstone rethink and Lucent accounts query

NEWS However, sources close to the situation warn that the deal may yet fall apart and add that Freeserve is still in talks with other potential buyers. Freeserve's failed deal with T-Online earlier this year shows the UK ISP is no stranger to an occasional eleventh hour break down in negotiation - but the company will be anxious to halt its falling stock, which has been badly hit since the collapse of talks with the German ISP... The Times reports that Redstone Telecom is pulling out of the angry mob of telcos threatening to sue BT over access to the local loop. Instead the telco is promising a more conciliatory approach to the UK incumbent ahead of next year's unbundling. Redstone may appear compassionate in its unwillingness to kick a telco while its down, but the company has already found a way to roll out high speed internet access across the UK without gaining access to the local loop and as such its change of heart seems sound business sense. By locating it's own technology outside BT's exchanges, Redstone doesn't need the immediate access to the local loop the other telcos are craving and helping to speed up access for them now would only diminish the company's first mover advantage... Finally, a troubled time for US technology company Lucent got worse yesterday with news that financial irregularities have been reported in it most recent quarterly earnings. At the centre of the issue is the fact that Lucent appears to have overstated revenues by as much as $125m and earnings by two cents per share The Financial Times reports that the issue raised further fears among investors and the company's downwardly mobile share price fell a further 15 per cent on the news...