A number of distressed asset investors are said to be circling BlackBerry eyeing a possible counter-bid for the company, which is currently subject to a possible buy-out bid by Fairfax Financial Holdings.

BlackBerry is currently valued at just US$4.7 billion, even though it has US$2.1 billion in cash.

Cerberus Capital Management has been named as the most likely counter-bidder, and is reported to be seeking access to BlackBerry’s accounts so that it can carry out a due diligence on the company.

At least one other distressed-investing firm has also been considering a bid, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed source.

BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis is also contemplating a bid, a person familiar with the matter said. He still owns a 5.7 per cent stake in the company.

"We do not intend to disclose further developments with the respect to the process until we approve a specific transaction or otherwise conclude the review of strategic alternatives," BlackBerry said.

Ooredoo is reportedly mulling a secondary stock market listing in London to help diversify its investor base and improve the liquidity of its shares for existing investors.

Citing bankers familiar with the matter, the Gulf News reported that Ooredoo has sent out proposals for the stock market listing to banks.

"It’s becoming more interesting for a lot of people trying to raise money and diversify their investor bases," said one banker, who didn’t want to be named.

Ooredoo is 55 per cent-owned by the Qatar government.

Its shares are also hampered by being listed on the Doha stock exchange, which limits shareholder liquidity and can hinder expansion plans.

Ooredoo is said to be in talks with Telenor that could see network sharing between their two companies in Myanmar.

Both companies were recently awarded a mobile operator licence in the country to compete with the state-owned monopoly network.

"It’s a greenfield launch and we’re going to build the network in partnership with Telenor," Jeremy Sell, Ooredoo’s chief strategy officer, told a conference in the UAE.

"This has never been done before – we’re rolling out two greenfield networks and anything made of steel or concrete we want to share. There are no towers that are so strategic you can’t share them," he added.

Telenor has not commented on the claims.

Apart from cost savings from capital investment, the country is mired by out-dated regulations and it is expected that the networks could face a red-tape headache securing planning approvals for their towers.

Pooling their resources could dramatically reduce the problems, while adding pressure on local government officials to be less bureaucratic when approached by the joint operators.

Bharti Airtel has entered into a partnership with Africa’s Ecobank Transnational to deliver Airtel Money across nine African countries where Airtel has operations.

The partnership between Airtel and Ecobank is already effective in seven African countries, namely Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Niger, Zambia and Kenya.

Airtel Money will also be rolled out in Gabon and Sierra Leone later this month.

The partnership enables Airtel customers to conduct a variety of mobile transactions. This offering which is subject to regulatory approval in each market, enables Airtel Money deposits and withdrawals at any Ecobank branch, utility bill payments and two-way money transfers between Airtel Money and Ecobank. Customers will also be able to view their bank account balances and statements in real time via Airtel Money.

Samsung Electronics has named the former CEO at Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Simon Beresford-Wylie, as global executive advisor to its Networks business.

The company said that Beresford-Wylie will play an important role in planning and executing the globalisation strategy of Samsung’s mobile network business.

Beresford-Wylie was previously responsible for leading the re-organisation and transformation of Nokia Solutions and Networks (formerly Nokia Siemens Networks) as president and CEO.

He has recently been working as CEO of at800, an organisation established by four mobile network operators in the UK to mitigate possible interference issues resulting from the coexistence of digital terrestrial television (DTT) and LTE service in the 800MHz band.