Globacom, Vodacom in merger talks
Jonah Iboma
There were indications on Friday that Globacom is in talks about forming a partnership with South African mobile phone operator, Vodacom.
According to reports by Reuters, an unnamed spokesman for Globacom said both Telkom South Africa, which owns 50 per cent of Vodacom, and the Nigerian company were partnership talks. The spokesman said, “There is a discussion going on between Vodacom and Globacom ... The discussion is about building a business partnership between the two organisations.”
It added that a spokeswoman for Vodacom, however, said that she was unaware of any such talks. A South African newspaper had earlier reported that the Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, had proposed merging Telkom’s 50 percent stake in Vodacom with Globacom to create a pan-African telecom firm “Vodaglo” worth $18 billion
Vodacom provides GSM service to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Industry experts in South Africa believe the new development has better prospects in store for both operators as it will also foster a stronger bond between Nigerian and South African entrepreneurs. Before now, there had been no multi-billion dollar business relationship between Nigerian entrepreneurs and their South African counterparts at this scale.
There were indications on Friday that Globacom is in talks about forming a partnership with South African mobile phone operator, Vodacom.
According to reports by Reuters, an unnamed spokesman for Globacom said both Telkom South Africa, which owns 50 per cent of Vodacom, and the Nigerian company were partnership talks. The spokesman said, “There is a discussion going on between Vodacom and Globacom ... The discussion is about building a business partnership between the two organisations.”
It added that a spokeswoman for Vodacom, however, said that she was unaware of any such talks. A South African newspaper had earlier reported that the Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, had proposed merging Telkom’s 50 percent stake in Vodacom with Globacom to create a pan-African telecom firm “Vodaglo” worth $18 billion
Vodacom provides GSM service to more than 23 million customers in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique. Industry experts in South Africa believe the new development has better prospects in store for both operators as it will also foster a stronger bond between Nigerian and South African entrepreneurs. Before now, there had been no multi-billion dollar business relationship between Nigerian entrepreneurs and their South African counterparts at this scale.
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