Telecom Italia back in black in first half 2014

Telecom Italia reported a first-half net profit of 543 million euros ($724 million) on Wednesday, but said a weak domestic market was offsetting positive results from its Brazilian business.
Its home market has been hit hard by Italy's struggle to recover from the eurozone debt crisis, with fresh data on Wednesday showing growth had contracted for a second month running, throwing the country back into recession.
Telecom Italia said in a statement that it "continued to be affected by the recessionary tensions in the domestic market, where signs of recovery are still very weak" as well as "a slowdown in economic growth in Latin America".
However, it said it will "continue the in-depth examination of the strategic options in Brazil," where its asset TIM Participacoes expects to see a rise in revenues this year.
The company had posted a net loss of 1.4 billion euros in the same period last year, after deciding to write down goodwill by 2.2 billion euros.
The first half 2014 results came amid a period of upheaval across the European telecom industry.
On Tuesday, French media group Vivendi received an offer from Spanish group Telefonica which could enable it to get a slice of Telecom Italia.
Vivendi received a firm bid worth 6.7 billion euros for its Brazilian telecom subsidiary GVT which, if accepted, would also give it the possibility of buying 8.1 percent of Telecom Italia.