Author: Duncan McLeod

In the podcast this week, Duncan McLeod and Regardt van der Berg discuss why Facebook is planning to make WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram interopable and the implications of the move.

Vodafone Group has suspended purchases of equipment from Huawei for the core of its wireless networks. However, it’s not immediately clear how this affects Vodacom, which is controlled by Vodafone.

Vodacom Group’s latest trading update, for the quarter ended December 2018, makes for sobering reading, particularly for those invested in the telecommunications sector.

Teraco Data Environments is being acquired by Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based investment firm. The Permira funds, an existing shareholder, will remain a “significant” investor alongside Berkshire.

The weak South African economy, coupled with consumers “optimising” promotional data, has led to a surprise decline in Vodacom’s service revenue in the quarter ended 31 December 2019.

MTN Group on Wednesday confirmed reports that three senior managers have been arrested and deported by the Ugandan government.

MultiChoice will carry losses incurred by Showmax in the “medium term”, but the goal is eventually for the streaming television service to turn a profit once broadband infrastructure in South Africa and the rest of the continent has been built out further to support it.

Streaming services pose a significant threat to MultiChoice’s future growth potential, but they are by no means the only risks exercising the minds of the pay-television operator’s management team.

Multichoice Africa Group will list in the “broadcasting and entertainment” sector on the main board of the JSE on 27 February 2019, the pay-TV operator said in a statement after markets closed on Monday.

MultiChoice Africa Group, which will list on the JSE next month, expects to pay executive chairman Imtiaz Patel R22.2-million for the year ended 31 March 2019, up from R19.7-million in the 2018 financial year.