Bharti Airtel and MTN call off merger talks

September 30, 09 by David Goldstein

Merger talks to create an emerging market powerhouse in mobile communications with 200m subscribers across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have broken down.

Bharti Airtel India’s largest mobile operator revealed yon Wednesday that merger talks with MTN, South Africa’s biggest mobile group, had been called off after the pair failed to secure approval from the government for the $23bn transaction.

To read this report in The Financial Times in full, see: www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b55bf40a-add0-11de-87e7-00144feabdc0.html

Also see:

Bharti and MTN Abandon Talks on Potential Merger Politics appears to have trumped business in emerging markets on Wednesday, when the Indian company Bharti Airtel and its South African rival, the MTN Group, called off a $24 billion deal to create a low-cost telecommunications giant.

The two companies have been in intensive talks for about four months, but the deal was ultimately derailed by the South African and Indian governments, according to people on both sides of the transaction. This is the second time that MTN, South Africa’s flagship phone company, and Bharti, India’s largest mobile company, have come close to a deal and then called it off. nytimes.com/2009/10/01/technology/companies/01phone.html

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  • Date Wednesday, 30 Sep 09 at 9:56 pm
  • Under Industry News
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