Bharti Airtel is to offer VeriFone Mobile Money’s merchant enablement applications for mobile Tap n Pay across its 17 operating companies in Africa.

VeriFone Mobile Money’s Tap n Pay applications are a way for customers to pay, buy, bank, bill and remit money with their mobile phone at the point of sale.

Over 42 million people across Africa according to the GSMA are actively using mobile money services and there are more than 520,000 registered mobile money agents across the continent. Only 22 per cent of Africans are estimated to hold a bank account or credit facility.

VeriFone Mobile Money will implement a full suite of retail enablement applications integrated to VeriFone’s range of payment devices across the group, enabling the deployment of Mobile POS (mPOS), POS and biometrics for international remittance to Airtel Money customers.

The sale of a controlling stake in Algerian operator Djezzy to the country’s government looks likely to go ahead after the agreed price was deemed fair.

Financial adviser HC said a fair price for the 51 per cent stake held by VimpelCom subsidiary Global Telecom Holding (GTH) is US$2.54 billion, four per cent lower than the us$2.64 billion deal agreed with the government.

VimpelCom acquired Djezzy in 2011 as part of a US$6 billion deal to buy the assets of Orascom Telecom. It first agreed to sell a 51 per cent stake in the operator to the Algerian government in January 2012.

Algeria’s finance minister said in September 2012 that the government remained interested in acquiring the controlling stake in Djezzy. There had been uncertainty around the deal after the operator was fined US$1.3 billion for violating foreign currency regulations in March of that year.

According to a Bloomberg report in April, GTH will retain a 49 per cent stake in Djezzy and continue to have operational control, based on a shareholder agreement with the government fund.

Djezzy is the largest operator in Algeria, with 17.7 million connections at the end of the second quarter. Algerie Telecom’s Mobilis was second with 13.1 million connections, while Ooredoo had 10.9 million.

According to VimpelCom’s second quarter results, Djezzy launched 3G services in seven provinces in July.

Michael Halbherr, CEO of Here – Nokia’s digital maps division – has resigned. He only took over the helm on July 1.

Nokia, in a statement, said he stepped down “in order to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests outside of the company”.

Halbherr also gives up his role as member of the Nokia group leadership team. He officially severs his Nokia connections on September 1.

Cliff Fox, SVP of Here’s core map group, will step into the breach until a permanent successor to Halbherr is found. Nokia says the search begins immediately, both within the organisation and externally.

Halbherr has been with Nokia since 2006, most recently leading the product unit in Nokia’s services business based in Berlin.

Prior to joining Nokia he worked for the Boston Consulting Group and at europatweb, the Internet investment vehicle of Groupe Arnault, where he oversaw all technology investments.

Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, stepped down from the company’s board, leaving his replacement Satya Nadella to wrestle with the company’s transition to a more mobile and cloud-focused strategy.

In a letter to Nadella explaining his decision to step down from the board, Ballmer said “there are challenges ahead but the opportunities are even larger”, and that no other company has “the mix of software skills, cloud skills, and hardware skills we have assembled”.

He added that in order to be successful in the mobile-first, cloud-first world (as Nadella calls it), the company needs to monetise through enterprise subscriptions, hardware gross margins, and advertising revenue.

Ballmer said new commitments led to his departure from the board. He recently secured ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball franchise and also plans to teach and make a “civic contribution” as part of his post-Microsoft activity.

The move comes six months after Ballmer stepped down as Microsoft CEO and the former company chief expressed confidence that current management is capable of making the changes needed.

Ballmer remains the biggest individual shareholder in the company and said he plans to remain in that position for the foreseeable future.  ”I bleed Microsoft — have for 34 years and I always will,” he concluded.

ZTE reported a first half profit attributable to shareholders of CNY1.13 billion (US$183.75 million), compared with a prior year figure of CNY310 million, up 263.92 per cent, on revenue of CNY37.7 billion, which was essentially flat year-on-year.

Adding the current quarter to the mix, it is expecting net profit for the nine months in the CNY1.7 billion to CNY1.9 billion range, up between 208.2 per cent and 244.5 per cent.

For its home market, it said that during the first half it saw a “rapid growth in operating revenue” as operators ramped their 4G rollouts, although this was offset by lower handset sales. A little over half of ZTE’s revenue – CNY19.26 billion – came from China.

Internationally, it said that in addition to its strategy of focusing on major populous nations and mainstream operators, it “further optimised its market profile” to achieve “stable operations and quality growth”.

Some CNY21.84 billion of the company’s sales came from its operator networks activities (up 14.6 per cent year-on-year), with it stating that its “innovative Cloud Radio solution” had boosted 4G sales both at home and overseas.

Its terminals business accounted for CNY10.41 billion of sales (down 16.5 per cent), with the company having established a dedicated business department “focused on the shift to a more consumer-oriented and Internet-driven approach”.