NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone company by market share, is to pay Rs130.7bn ($2.7bn) for 26 per cent of Tata Teleservices in a deal that highlights the high prices foreign operators are willing to pay to enter the booming Indian market.

Satyam, one of India’s top software development companies, has agreed to acquire a software development center in Malaysia from Motorola. The acquisition is intended to build “synergies” between Saytam and Motorola and improve Satyam’s competitiveness in Malaysia and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Motorola will divest itself of the center, which is in Cyberjaya, shifting all [...]

Norwegian telecoms group Telenor announced a bold move to enter the Indian mobile market through a $1.1 billion deal financed by a rights issue, sending its shares down sharply on Wednesday. Telenor, already the second-largest foreign operator in Asia after Vodafone, also reported third-quarter core profit slightly below forecast and affirmed its 2008 financial targets.

Spice Communications has lost nearly a million subscribers in the past two months after Idea Cellular announced the acquisition of the two-circle operator. While over 0.35 million subscribers were knocked off the books in July, another 0.63 million gave up the connection in August. With this, the subscriber base of Spice now stands at 3.56 [...]

Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire approximately 45% of Swan Telecom Private Limited, a recently licensed mobile operator in India, by subscribing to newly issued shares for a cash consideration of up to $900m, implying a post-money equity value for 100% of the Company.

Telecom Italia has piped Norway’s Telenor to acquire 49% stake in Unitech’s telecom arm. A top Unitech executive confirmed that the two firms are close to reaching an agreement whereby Unitech’s telecom business will be transferred to a new company in which Telecom Italia will invest $2 billion for 49% stake. The majority 51% in [...]

BPL Mobile on Tuesday made a Mauritius based equity fund its stakeholder for a consideration of USD 80 million, as part of efforts to raise funds for expansion and purchase of stake in Mumbai-based Loop Telecom. BPL Mobile has issued approximately 17 per cent equity to the company owned by an international equity fund investing [...]

In one of the biggest deals in the Indian telecom sector, Aditya Birla group’s Idea Cellular on Wednesday said it would acquire BK Modi’s Spice Communications to strengthen its position in the growing telecom market. The deal consists of four related, but distinct transactions.
To begin with, Idea will acquire the Modis’ 40.8% stake in Spice. [...]

Reliance Communications has appointed a veteran London banker and one-time anti-apartheid activist to lead its team of advisers on talks with South Africa’s MTN that could create a giant Indo-African telecommunications group.
Ken Costa, chairman of international business at Lazard, will lead Reliance’s negotiations with MTN, the two companies being locked in exclusive talks that could [...]

Essar Communications Holdings, the telecom subsidiary of the Ruias-controlled Essar group, has acquired a strategic stake in US-based mobile payment solutions provider Obopay. However, neither the financial terms nor the percentage of stake acquired were disclosed.
“We are excited with our investment in Obopay. The company has introduced significant mobile payment innovations in US [...]