Stephen Elop, the former CEO of Nokia who headed Microsoft’s devices unit after its acquisition of the Finnish vendor, is leaving the US company as part of a management reshuffle.

A new team headed by Terry Myerson called the Windows and Devices Group (WDG) will combine the existing Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group (MDG), led by Elop.

The change leaves Elop, a one-time candidate for the top job at Microsoft, surplus to requirement. Though do not feel too badly for him. He reportedly received a US$25 million payment for overseeing the sale of Nokia Devices to Microsoft.

The thinking behind the reshuffle, which in turn elevates Myerson to a powerful position within the company, is to spread Windows as a service across all device types. The new unit will build all Microsoft devices including Surface, HoloLens, Lumia, Surface Hub, Band and Xbox.

Three other senior Microsoft executives are also leaving – Kirill Tatarinov, Eric Rudder and Mark Penn – as part of the same reshuffle. All will leave following an unspecified transition period.

As part of the same changes, Peggy Johnson, executive vice president, business development, will now lead Micrsoft’s partnerships with mobile operators around the world.

The listing of MTN shares on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) through Ikulileni Investments has been called off after the share offer was under subscribed.

Ikulileni Investments was set to debut on the LuSE on June 16, 2015 with 11.9 per cent of MTN shares made available to the public, but the offer was shelved with only 24 hours to go before the actual listing.

The share offer was marred by controversy after it was discovered that some directors of MTN, including board chairman Valentine Chitalu, were also shareholders of Ikulileni Investments.

It was further revealed that Ikulileni Investments did not meet the listing rule of having a three-year profitability history since it was only incorporated in October 2014 for purposes of creating a special purpose vehicle for the MTN listing.

Ikulileni Investments also recorded low subscription rates.

It is believed that MTN has lost close to ZMW1 million (US$136,000) in sponsoring the share offer and the entire transaction and will request government for a three-year extension before it can consider coming directly to list on the exchange as part of the licence requirements.

Comverse’s proposed purchase of Acision, the UK messaging firm, reflects a shift in strategy to digital services, and away from the billing business.

The purchase price consists of about US$135 million in cash, 3.13 million shares of Comverse’s common stock and potential earnout payments of up to US$35 million. In addition, the US vendor will seek to maintain Acision’s existing US$157 million senior credit facility following completion of the transaction.

Acision’s secure mobile messaging business will be added to Comverse’s portfolio, which includes data analytics, secure enterprise application-to-person (A2P) messaging, credit orchestration, two-factor authentication and M2M communications, as well as Rich Communication Services (RCS), WebRTC and APIs for service creation.

Back in April, Comverse offloaded what was termed “a substantial majority” of its business support systems (BSS) assets to Amdocs for US$272 million in cash. That deal is expected to close before the end of September 2015.

Acision’s board approved this week’s transaction that, subject to closing conditions, is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

The new company will be led by a team made up of executives from both organisations under the leadership of Comverse’s CEO, Philippe Tartavull. Headquarters will be at Comverse’s base in the US.

Vodacom Group’s ZAR7 billion (US$565 million) offer to buy broadband provider Neotel has been approved by South Africa’s communications regulator.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, which has been deliberating the proposal for about a year, will allow Vodacom to proceed with the deal, the regulator’s chairman Stephen Mncube said. The takeover will be subject to compliance with a local ownership law and adherence to terms of the rollout of broadband infrastructure and services, he said.

Vodacom, 65 per cent owned by Vodafone Group, agreed to buy Neotel from Tata Communications in May 2014. The deal would enable Vodacom to extend Internet services for small-to-medium sized businesses.

Competitors MTN and Cell C have previously said they oppose the purchase because they say Vodacom would become too dominant. South Africa’s Competition Commission has yet to rule on the deal.

Having announced that he would depart the merged company once the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent by Nokia is completed, in the interim period CEO Michel Combes continues to exhibit the energy and pragmatic positivity that has seen the under-pressure Alcatel-Lucent claw back business and revenues in the just over two years he has headed the company. On a recent whistle-stop tour to the Middle East, Combes reiterated his belief that the tie-up with Nokia was the right combination at the right time, set to create a “new technology champion”

Michel Combes believes the coming together of Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia offers a unique opportunity to create a vendor that will have the strength to commercialise new technological opportunities

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