Simon Zekaria

Cable magnate John Malone says 21st Century Fox has long been eyeing a takeover bid for Time Warner and isn't likely to face competing bidders, pouring cold water on speculation that tech companies could emerge as rival suitors for the TV and movie company.

"It's such a large magnitude transaction," Malone said, adding that Fox's ability to pay with nonvoting stock and to access cheap debt means "that it would be very difficult to put together a competitive bid."

More evidence, if any was needed, that the balance of global mobile telecom power continues to tilt away from the West towards Asia.

China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest mobile phone market by revenue for the first time in 2014, according to a report from Strategy Analytics, a Boston, Massachusetts-based research group.

Mobile phone sales in China will rise 15% to 430 million units in 2014 driven by the country’s rapid shift to 3G and 4G smartphones, and generating a 53% surge in trade -- or wholesale -- revenue to $87 billion in 2014, it forecasts. In contrast, mobile phone sales in the US will flat-line at 163 million units, with revenues up just 4% to $60 billion, it adds. In 2013, both countries recorded almost identical revenue at around $57 billion, reflecting a wide difference in performance. Overall, mobile handset revenues are forecast to grow 13% worldwide during 2014.

Major Asian brands, such as Samsung, Huawei and Lenovo, are aggressively expanding their distribution channels and product ranges across the region to meet strong demand from Chinese consumers for more advanced mobile phones, say analysts. The revenue growth is propelled by a decrease in the ultra-low tier market and an increase in other higher-price range segments.