Teleology Holdings Is Officially The New Owner Of 9Mobile

After a long period of biding and back and forth speculation, Teleology Holdings Limited has been officially confirmed as the preferred bidder for 9mobile by Barclays Africa who is acting as the transaction adviser.

According to the report, Barclays Africa sent an official letter declaring Teleology Holdings Limited as the preferred bidder.
Teleology was also told to make a non-refundable cash deposit of $50 million within 21 days from the date of the letter or forfeit its position as the preferred bidder which has been done so Teleology Holdings officially owns 9mobile.

They have now formed an alliance with Safaricom a popular Telecom company.

I think Teleology deserved the win after coming on strong right from the start even when some of the bidders ran due to the large debt 9mobile had amassed, I only wish that they don't change the name again, a lot of us haven't gotten used to saying 9mobile we can't afford a new name now.

9Mobile Has a New Owner: And The Winner Is!!

Over the past couple months, we've all been glued to the war between several companies to acquire 9mobile after it was abandoned by its previous owners over a several debt issue.

Initially, 16 companies were interested in acquiring 9mobile, however along the line many were dropped leaving five final bidders in December and then two more were dropped leaving Globacom, Teleology and Smile.
(Bharti Airtel dropped out because they believed that whoever acquire 9mobile would be acquiring a huge debt)
Later on, Globacom was dropped leaving Teleology and Smile in the final round.
Then finally, Teleology Holdings Limited emerged as the overall winner through a game of numbers, as they offered over $500 Million against Smile's $300 Million bid.

According to a staff of 9mobile:

“this news is like a double whopper burger for us. I can tell you there is an air of jubilation amongst the staff of 9mobile now. We did not want any of the existing operators to acquire 9mobile as they would end up sacking people and throwing people into the unemployment market under the guise of right sizing the business.”

Although I really hoped GLO won the bid, I guess we just have to watch and see if Telelogy is a good new owner.

Glo, Airtel And Smile Among Last 5 bidders For 9Mobile

I recently wrote a post about the 16 companies that where bidding for 9mobile including our very own Globacom. Right now, more companies have been booted out and we are down to 5 companies.

The last five companies are;

Globacom

Airtel

Smile

Teleology Holdings Limited

Helios

These five companies are cleared to proceed to the final stage where only one would emerge winner.

9Mobile Introduces New Data Plans 5.5GB For N4000

9mobile, one of the major telecom providers in Nigeria recently introduced a new data plan and if you ask me, I'd say the plan is pretty laughable comparing to what other providers are offering.

According to Yomiprof, he got a text saying

Buy 5.5GB at N4000 and get free 1.3GB data valid for 14 days. Unlock FREE data when you buy 1GB or more within 30 days. Dial *229*2*36# valid/30days.

.

That means you get 6.8Gb worth of data at N4000 on 9mobile when you can get 24GB at the same price of N4000, isn't that plain crazy?

He said he also got another text saying;

Get 5GB data at N2000 to browse from 7pm - 7am and weekends from Friday 7pm till Monday 7am. You also get all-day FREE access to Whatsapp. Dial *229*3*13#. Valid 30 days

I don't think this new plan should have even be introduced at all.
In a market where you have many competitors, you need to everything possible to entice customers t your side not scare them away.

9Mobile Is Up For Sale - Who Do You Think Would Buy It?

9mobile is currently up for sale after the initial saga that led them into changing names from Etisalat to 9mobile. The scramble to acquire 9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth largest network operator, has advanced to the next stage.

10 bidders are left out of the 16 who expressed interest in the purchase. And the highest bidder will acquire 9mobile.

Here is a List of The 10 bidders of 9mobile

1. Globacom Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s second largest network operator
2. Airtel Nigeria
3. Dangote Group’s telecoms business unit
4. Alheri Engineering Limited
5. Smile Telecoms Holdings
6. Centricus Capital and Africell
7. Abraaj Capital (Based in Dubai)
8. Teleology Holdings Limited
9. The Carlyle Group
10. Africa Capital Alliance (ACA)

The 10 firms above have been pre-qualified to submit their financial bids for the acquisition of 9mobile, this will be the final process through which a winner with the highest bid submitted for 9mobile, will emerge.

9mobile, formerly Etisalat Nigeria, was put on the block early this year after it defaulted on a $1.2 billion loan from a consortium of 13 Nigerian banks. Etisalat Group the mother company in Abu Dhabi backed out leaving its Nigeria arm of business to its own fate, to survive on a new name.

The question is, who do you think should acquire 9mobile among the 10 bidders?

How To Get 1GB For N200 or 5Gb for N1000 on 9mobile

Since their transition from Etisalat to 9mobile, there has been a lot of complaints about that quality, people complain that the speed is nothing to write home about.

However, lately there has been noticeable improvements, and to compliment this improvement the Telecom provider has unveiled a new data plan called Special Data.

With 9mobile Special Data, you get 1GB of data for just N200.

HOW TO ACTIVATE 9MOBILE 1GB FOR N200

It's simple, load your 9mobile line with N200 and dial *929*10#

To check your Special Data balance, dial *228#

The plan is valid for 3 days and usable on all devices including PCs. Also, it works all day long.

You can subscribe multiple times, when you subscribe to the 9mobile special data plan five times you get 5GB for 1000.

What do you think about the new plan?

Nigerians Spend Over N197B On Data Subscription Monthly

According to the recent statistics released, it is recorded that Telecoms subscribers in Nigeria spend over N197 billion on data subscriptions every month.


Research by Daily Trust from the four GSM operators revealed an estimate of the categories of data users and how much they spent on data monthly.

According to the survey, about 70% of internet users or 64m use up to N1000 data monthly each, raising the operators’ revenue base by N64bn.


Also, about 15% or 13.8m data users, mostly small business owners and middle-class people, purchase an average of N3000 data monthly, contributing N41.1bn every month to the figures.

Similarly, 10% of internet subscribers or 9.15m use N5000 each every month, growing the operators’ revenue by N45.6bn.

About 5% of internet subscribers or 4.6m buy N10,000 data each, increasing the mobile internet companies’ revenue by N46bn, according to findings made by Daily Trust.

Recall that the latest Monthly Subscriber/Operator Data released by the regulator last month showed that MTN had 58,121,427 users, and Glo 37,270,100 customers, Airtel 34,336,802 while 9mobile has 19,621,806 users.
The remaining figures are shared between the other smaller operators.

Although 92m of the 149.5m subscribers are active internet users, and they depend on data provided by the telcos to access the Internet and socialise on the social media.

Source : DAILY Trust

Etisalat Officially Changes Its Name To 9Mobile

A while back, the entire Nigerian Techsphere was shocked to hear that Etisalat as we know it would be leaving and the company would getting a new name.

According to Etisalat, internal operations will not be affected and staffs will not be retrenched, the only change would be the brand's name which has now been changed.

On Thursday, July 13, Etisalat Officially changed its name after weeks of debt related crisis. The management of the company at the end of a management meeting held in Lagos adopted the name 9Mobile as the new brand name.

This happened after Etisalat International issued a 3-week ultimatum for the company to have a change of name.
Now that the name has been changed, we should begin to see effect of the name change from any moment soon, adverts, notifications on mobile devices etc.

Personally, if you ask me I think 9Mobile is a horrible choice of name.

Etisalat Fighting Till The Last! Unleashes New Airtime Offer

Regardless of all the issues of the rebranding or reconstruction going on at ETISALAT, the company has decided to give its customers a really interesting offer.

Etisalat has introduced an airtime bonus offer called #SBORevamp, a special offer that gives up to 10x your Recharge for 30days. The offer is open to both existing and new customers.

For new customers: get 10 times the value of your recharge daily for voice calls and data to all networks in the first month.

For existing customers: Get 7 times the value of your first recharge daily for voice calls only to all networks for 30days.

How To Activate?
Dial *819*1# to enjoy

Note that new customers also get 7times the value of their recharge in the second and third month.