Reuters reports WIND Mobile is interested in buying Mobilicity, after Ottawa blocked the TELUS bid to acquire the latter for $380 million. If WIND Mobile merges with Mobilicity, it could create the possible fourth national wireless player the Federal Government has long wanted for consumers.
“Our past offers for Mobilicity stand and we look forward to having ongoing discussions with them,” Lacavera, Wind’s chairman and chief executive officer, told Reuters at a telecom conference in Toronto.
Lacavera is in the process of transferring his voting interest in Wind Mobile to Russia-focused Vimpelcom Ltd, but maintains a minority economic interest.
Lacavera said WIND had done its due diligence on Mobilicity over a year ago, but now that Ottawa has clarified the rules on who can acquire spectrum assets, it has reinvigorated his desire to grow WIND, which sits at 600,000 users, into a bigger carrier. Mobilicity has 250,000 users.
“What this does is give me and Vimpelcom a solid policy foundation to build a business plan. There was a lot of ambiguity, up until this morning,” Lacavera said.
“That clarity is excellent for all market players. It certainly positions us to revisit the Mobilicity bid.”
Lacavera clarified “The value in Mobilicity for us is the spectrum,” and went on to say “Unfortunately there’s very little value in the network or the subscribers.”
Last October a report cited WIND Mobile had been in talks to acquire Mobilicity, but the former denied the claims saying they were “not currently engaged in any active merger discussion.” Looks like those reports were true.
Can WIND Mobile + Mobilicity become the alternative carrier Canadians have been waiting for?
