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According to the Times Online, Vodafone is moving closer to gaining control of South Africa’s leading Mobile Network Operator, Vodacom, in a deal that will cost it about £1.4bn. Vodafone’s current partner, Telkom, will sell 15% of it’s stake, which would push Vodafone’s share up to 65%.
It’s interesting to see the strategies of the Tier 1 Operator groups now – recognising the stagnation in the developed markets, there is much activity in both the M&A (merger and acquisition) space, and also expansion in to the “developing countries” (by developing countries, I mean those making leaps and bounds in IT dev, and in some cases leapfrogging developed countries!).
In Vodafone’s case, they are have the opportunity to increase their footprint in a key region that is surely going to explode with further Telecoms development over the coming years.
[Via: Times Online]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
