According to Yahoo News, “Nordic telecommunication giants Nokia and Ericsson will need to grow by acquisition to counter the long-term impact of a planned merger of Alcatel and Lucent on their business.”

French company Alcatel and US company Lucent are merging to become a giant company worth about $25 billion, which will make them the 2nd biggest telecom in the world (behind US-based Cisco).

Some analysts are suggesting that Nokia should now think about merging with German company Siemens. Similarly, Ericsson should consider increasing its fixed-line business so that it can stay competitive.

For now, according to Optically Networked, Alcatel and Lucent are focusing on “the massive job of synchronizing operations on both sides of the Atlantic” and deciding which side will “bear the brunt of the layoffs, which are expected to be about 10 percent of the combined workforce of about 88,000.”

The World Poker Tour (or rather, the company that owns the WPT) IPO’d last August, and since then is trading at more than double the IPO. Not surprising.

But now there’s an overseas look into the IPO, and PartyGaming, the largest UK website for poker, is planning an IPO this month on the London Exchange and fully expects to be the largest offering in four years. Add in the fact that the UK has recently passed a gambling law that gives even greater leeway to online gambling operations.

This IPO, however, will not see any new shares. All of the shares that will be sold are being sold by founding shareholders. The painfully-named Anurag Dikshit is the group operations director and largest current shareholder at 40% of all shares, and his stake is estimated to be worth $3 billion once the IPO hits. That’s if he keeps all 40% of his shares, which presumably he won’t.

Currently there’s a slight downward trend in casinos away from poker towards slots, the perennial moneymaker. But online gambling (of all kinds, not just poker) is expected to move from 3.4 percent of all gambling in 2004 to 8.1 percent in 2009; in dollar signs that’s $8.4 billion in worldwide online gambling revenue in 2004 to an expected $22.7 billion in worldwide online gambling revenue in 2009 - 22 percent a year - lofty expectations, but not unimaginable.

Skype recently announced it was launching two new premium services: SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail.

Forbes has the scoop:

Software maker Skype said Friday that it was launching two more premium services as the number of downloads of its popular program neared 100 million.

The company also said it was launching SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail, two premium services available in the latest download versions of Skype software for Linux, MAC OS X, Pocket PC and Windows platforms.

Skype’s signature program lets computer users call each other online for free anywhere in the world.

The new SkypeIn offers users personal numbers and lets them receive inbound calls from the Skype program from land lines or mobile phones without having to pay roaming charges.

Skype Voicemail lets users manage incoming messages.

“Skype is setting new standards for modern communications by expanding premium services that extend Skype portability, mobility and ubiquity across a variety of platforms, including the traditional phone network,” said Niklas Zennstreom, the company’s chief executive and co-founder.

And The Internet Stock Blog’s take:

Voice over IP company Skype announced that its free software had been downloaded 100 million times, and that it was launching two new premium (ie. paid) products: SkypeIn, which offers users personal numbers and lets them receive inbound calls from the Skype program from land lines or mobile phones without having to pay roaming charges, and Skype Voicemail. SkypeIn will cost $13 for three months or $39 for 12-months, and Skype Voicemail $7 for 3 months or $19 for 12 months. Comment: Skype matters to Internet investors for three reasons: (1) VoIP is a killer Internet application; (2) Skype effectively competes with the leading providers of instant messaging software - AOL (owned by Time Warner, ticker: TWX), Yahoo and Microsoft; (3) As communication and personal publishing become tied together, for example with Yahoo 360, instant messaging, video conferencing and VoIP will be an intregral part of the bundle. The upshot? Skype will eventually be acquired by a leading Internet company.

Read more here and here.

PETER CAVE: A mystery Russian company has bought what’s been described as the heart of the country’s beleaguered oil giant, Yukos. The company’s main production unit was seized by authorities as part of a continuing claim for back-taxes which now total around $30 billion.

$30 billion in back taxes? And you thought that few thousand you owed the IRS was a lot!

You can read the full story here.

Welcome to Streetsters.com. We cover the latest financial and business news coming out of Wall Street, focusing on fresh news, advice and tips relevant for today’s investors and businesspeople.

Check back regularly, or subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up on news from the Street.