M&A

New UK foreign investment law to impact telecoms, digital and data transactions

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Summary By the end of 2021, many corporate transactions in the communications, data infrastructure, artificial intelligence, satellite and space technologies sectors (and some others) will be subject to mandatory notification to, and national security review by, the UK government. Implementation timetable The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (“Act“) became part of UK law on …

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India opens telecoms sector to 100% foreign investment

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On Tuesday 16th July the Indian Government announced its decision to relax its foreign direct investment rules to permit 100% foreign investment in the telecoms sector, up from the prior cap of 74%. In the basic and cellular telecoms services sectors, 49 per cent foreign investment will now be allowed automatically, but investment above this remains subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Promotion …

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How serious is India about foreign investment as an engine for growth?

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I will be spending next week in Mumbai and Delhi (with @singarbitration), and in preparation have been contemplating the impact of the recent budget proposals on foreign investment, and in turn the implications for the Indian economy. Before going on any trip, I like to remind myself of some basic economic facts, so my trusty EIU ‘World …

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Continued growth in Asian technology, media and telecoms sectors in 2012 despite Eurozone troubles

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With the launch party of Olswang Asia happening tonight, I have been musing on the economic outlook for Asia in 2012 and beyond. At a very micro-level I have been very pleasantly surprised by the (extraordinarily high) level of interest in our launch and it looks like the party tonight will be standing room only. I wondered if …

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Indian Supreme Court decision in Vodafone tax case good news for international investors in India

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The judgement of India’s Supreme Court on 20 Jan in the Vodafone tax case, removes (at least for now) some of country-specific risk that has been holding back investment by multi-national companies in India. Reduction in perceived risk is likely to encourage more investment in India by multi-national companies, particularly as Indian growth is driven to a …

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Patent power (part 2) – Google buys Motorola Mobility

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Today’s big news is Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility. What is fascinating is the logic for the deal. This is not a deal driven by customers or operating synergies – it is all about Motorola’s patents. The give-away is the final paragraph of Google’s announcement: “We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding …

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Microsoft buys Skype: comparison with eBay deal logic

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The big story yesterday was the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. It was only 6 years ago that eBay bought Skype for $ 2.6 billion. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the publicly announced rationales for the deals. First, here is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday: “Skype is …

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Reform of UK Competition law to lead to flood of merger notifications?

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On 16 March the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (although as regular readers will know, no longer telecoms) published a consultation on options to reform the UK’s competition regime. The lengthy consultation’s aim is to introduce reforms to stimulate growth and it covers a variety of topics including: merging the Office of Fair Trading with …

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Mobile operators to acquire more fixed assets in 2011?

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Any twitter followers (to follow go to: @rbratby) may have seen my live tweet commentary from the AnalysysMason city briefing last night. I thought the four speakers were well-informed and authoritative, and their presentations thought-provoking. The first presentation summarised the results of some cost modelling they had undertaken relating to mobile networks, by reference to a number …

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