Midday wrapup: Gulf News makes a big discovery, and the second-loudest mouth in telecoms

- The Intel-Nokia collaboration announced this week is a turning point in the history of two industries that are destined to converge, I argue in an analysis of one of the most important technology partnerships of the decade.

- Middle Eastern startup tech companies looking for venture capital will have a hard time, in the short term at least, according to a bunch of finance professionals who spoke at a venture cap / private equity forum at the DIFC yesterday.

- David George-Cosh, the co-author of this blog, wrote an interesting story on the "Hostage in Qatar," whose clever use of twitter is getting his story out in among the media and chattering classes.

- Gulf News have unearthed a hot new trend emerging in the internet industry that few people are talking about. It's called "search engine advertising" and apparently it involves placing advertisements alongside search engine results. "Many in the industry are calling it the hottest trend in digital advertising," they say.

- Naguib Sawiris, the second loudest mouth in Middle Eastern telecoms, told Reuters that France Telecom are "in the business of value destruction," in reference to their long running dispute with Sawiris over ownership of the Egyptian Mobinil mobile network. The story also has an interesting peek at plans for mobile banking services in the Orascom empire.

- WiMax operators would like to see regulators in the region issuing more "unified" communications licenses, Business 24-7 reports, although it is not entirely clear what that means. And another 24-7 article says IBM is thinking about building a data centre in the region.