CC image coutersy of rogiro on Flickr
Safaricom’s acquisition of the core assets of smaller rival yuMobile is “still under discussion”, according to chief executive officer (CEO) Bob Collymore, with the company yet to decide whether it will re-enter the deal.
HumanIPO reported last month the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) had approved the applications of Safaricom and Airtel to acquire yuMobile just a few hours shy of the deadline and after Safaricom had accused the regulator of delaying the process and said it had abandoned the acquisition.
Collymore told HumanIPO the country’s leading operator is still discussing whether to revive its part of the deal, and could not give a timeframe on when a decision would be reached.
“This is still under discussion,” he said. “No decision yet made.”
“We’re looking at the conditions set out by the CAK as well as the broader issue of the recent ruling by the Appeals Court on digital migration, that is likely to have a significant impact on the industry as a whole,” he said.
The CAK laid down a number of conditions to Safaricom and rival Airtel as part of its approval, among them that Safaricom open up its M-Pesa agency network to Airtel, Orange Kenya and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), a move Safaricom is against.
