In a terse press release, Orascom Telecom, a subsidiary of Vimpelcom Ltd, today announced that it is dropping its plans to acquire WIND Mobile. The company attributed the decision to “a review process and discussions with the government of Canada” but provided no specific reasons. The Globe and Mail last week reported that concerns about national security were delaying the […]
Orascom
WIND Mobile CEO to step down after selling shares to Orascom Telecom
Orascom Telecom and today announced that it will buy WIND Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera’s stake in the company in a move that will also see Lacavera step down as CEO. Pending approvals, Lacavera’s holding AAL Corporation will transfer its indirect 66.7% voting share in Globalive Wireless Management Corp., operating in Canada as WIND Mobile, to Orascom. When the dust settles, […]
Egypt-based Orascom to take control of WIND Mobile
With Canada having rolled out new foreign ownership rules for the telecom sector, Egypt-based Orascom is moving forward with a plan to assume voting control of WIND Mobile which now has over 500,000 subscribers. The company will exercise an option to convert a 65% non-voting stake into voting shares. The move would see control shift away from Globalive Communications but […]
Former Orascom chairman regrets getting involved in Canada
Former Orascom Telecom chairman Naguib Sawiris said in an interview that he regrets ever getting involved in Canada. WIND Mobile’s parent company Globalive received substantial financing from Orascom to help it launch in 2009. Orascom’s investment resulted in lengthy legal issues for the new Canadian carrier over its ownership status, first delaying its launch and then causing uncertainty over its […]
WIND Mobile tops 350,000 subscribers
The latest Orascom Telecom financial results have once again given us an update on how WIND Mobile is doing in Canada. According to its Q3 report, WIND Mobile displayed “tremendous subscriber growth compared to 3Q 2010,” recording an increase of 156%. It now has 358,000 subscribers. It added 41,000 new customers in the last quarter alone. WIND Mobile’s ARPU (Average […]
WIND Mobile now has 317,000 subscribers
Orascom Telecom yesterday announced its financial results for the first half of 2011. The company, which provides financial backing for WIND Mobile, now has over 105 million subscribers WIND Mobile contributed some 317,000 of those. Second quarter indicators show continued strong customer acceptance across different market segments, increasing WIND Mobile’s active subscriber base by 17% in Q2 2011 and reinforcing […]