Visa Inc., a global leader in payments, announced its acquisition of Fundamo, a leading platform provider of mobile financial services for mobile network operators and financial institutions in developing economies. Visa will pay approximately US$110 million in cash for the company.

It also announced a new, long-term commercial agreement with Monitise PLC, a leading provider of mobile money solutions for financial institutions in more developed geographies.

The investments will accelerate the execution of Visa’s global strategy announced last month to provide the next generation of payments solutions, enabling consumers to transact wherever and whenever they choose, using a card, a computer or a mobile device. The combination of acquiring Fundamo and expanding the relationship with Monitise will enable Visa to deliver best-in-class mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.

Fundamo’s platform enables the delivery of mobile financial services to unbanked and under-banked consumers around the world – including person-to-person payment, airtime top-up, bill payment and branchless banking services.

The combined Visa Fundamo platform will add enhanced functionality and new services to existing mobile financial services subscribers across Africa, Asia and Latin America for safe, reliable and globally accepted payments solutions.

Privately held, Cape Town, South Africa-based Fundamo has more than 50 active mobile financial services deployments across more than 40 countries, including 27 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Fundamo’s deployments currently have a base of more than five million registered subscribers and the potential to reach more than 180 million consumers with mobile financial services.

UAE telco Du has signed a new club financing deal for a US$220 million three-year loan facility as part of its ongoing capital optimisation programme.

The loan will be used to both assist in the repayment of an existing loan facility, due for repayment on June 30, 2011, whilst also providing for the continued investment of the company. The remaining balance of the existing facility will be settled using the company’s current resources.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Emirates NBD Bank and Samba Financial Group were appointed mandated lead arrangers for the facility, with Mashreq Bank acting as co-arranger. The deal carries a margin of 1.45 per cent per annum over London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

France Telecom Orange’s mobile money service, Orange Money, has been launched in Botswana. Orange Money is a system that allows customers to carry out simple banking operations and transactions in total security.

Orange partnered with Standard Chartered Bank to provide the service, having first launched Orange Money in Côte d’Ivoire in December 2008, and later expanded to Senegal, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Kenya. Overall, Orange Money has now attracted over two million customers.

Hong-Kong-listed wireless solutions provider Comba Telecom has announced its selection by a major operator in the Middle East to supply wireless equipment for its LTE network build out in the region. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Comba provided a number of LTE equipment including indoor and base station antennas for deployment in both indoor and outdoor environments for the network. In addition, Comba also supplied 3G antennas to enable a ubiquitous wireless coverage experience for the mobile operator’s customers.

The order includes the supply of hundreds of LTE antennas and thousands of 3G antennas. 

“We are delighted to be part of such an important project. Besides the performance and value proposition of our products, we believe that Comba’s superior support, delivery and customer-focused service orientation were key factors in our win,” commented Charlene Chong, GM of Comba’s Middle East operations.

Apple today introduced iCloud, a set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on iPads, iPhones, iPod touch’s, Macs, or PCs to automatically and wirelessly store content and push it to all devices. iCloud services include new versions of Contact, Calendar, and Mail; iCloud Backup and Storage; Photo Stream; and iTunes in the Cloud. And for US$24.99 a year, iTunes Match will offer the benefits of iTunes in the cloud for music that has not been purchased from iTunes. iCloud will be available this fall, along with iOS 5. A free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud is available today in the U.S. and requires iTunes 10.3 and iOS 4.3.3.