BlackBerry has abandoned its plans for a sell off, its CEO has resigned, and the company will seek an additional US$1 billion in funding.

The company’s largest single shareholder, Fairfax Holdings had proposed a US$4.7 billion buyout of the company, but was unable to secure the necessary funding for its highly conditional offer.

Other rumoured bidders also failed to materialise by the November 04 deadline.

Instead, the company will raise US$1 billion in fresh funding, of which a quarter will be provided by Fairfax Holdings.

The company’s CEO Thorsten Heins is also stepping down and former Sybase CEO, John Chen will serve as interim chief executive while a long-term replacement is found.

Another company director, David Kerr has also resigned.

BlackBerry currently has a market value of around US$5 billion and has some US$3 billion in cash and equivalents. The fresh funding will lift its cash to around $4 billion, giving whoever takes on the role of CEO more time to try and turn the company around.

"The BlackBerry board conducted a thorough review of strategic alternatives and pursued the course of action that it concluded is in the best interests of BlackBerry and its constituents, including its shareholders. This financing provides an immediate cash injection on terms favourable to BlackBerry, enhancing our substantial cash position." said Barbara Stymiest, chairperson of BlackBerry’s board.

Ooredoo has passed the milestone of more than one million mobile money customers across its global footprint. Mobile money enables customers to use their mobile phones to access a comprehensive suite of mobile financial services. The service, which Ooredoo Group companies offer in Qatar, Indonesia, and Tunisia, is a low-cost alternative for customers who do not have bank accounts, or do not have easy access to financial services.

Ooredoo Qatar has partnered with QNB and MoneyGram on Ooredoo Mobile Money, which enables customers to send money in 197 countries around the world. Ooredoo Qatar has seen strong take-up by international workers.

In Indonesia, Indosat has partnered with QNB Kesawan on the Dompetku service, enabling customers to use their mobile at more than 200 local organisations, including banks and retail chains. Indosat is planning to expand the programme by offering debit cards linked to Dompetkuso that customers without bank accounts can withdraw money from ATMs.

In Tunisia, Tunisiana Ooredoo and Tunisian Mail (La Poste Tunisienne) have partnered on mobiflouss, which enables customers to top-up their airtime account, transfer money and pay bills via their mobile. Through mobiflouss, Tunisiana also launched the first mobile G2P (Government-to-Person) service in the region, allowing Tunisian students to receive scholarships awarded by the government directly into their mobile wallet.

Myanmar, where Ooredoo recently won a mobile network licence, will be a key area of focus for implementing mobile money solutions in the near future. Myanmar’s large, rural population of 60 million people has limited access to financial services, but will have widespread mobile phone access as Ooredoo rolls out its network over the coming years.

India’s Bharti Airtel is looking to expand its African footprint and is said to be in talks to buy Warid Group’s mobile network in the Republic of Congo.

Sources close to the negotiations told media in India that the nature of the deal is to be finalised but the two companies have agreed for a strategic partnership in Congo.

Meetings have also been held with government officials in Congo to reassure them about the potential transaction and seek regulatory approval.

Regulatory approval is especially important as a previous deal by Warid to sell the local network to the Essar Group collapsed due to regulatory difficulties.

Sources added that there are other companies eyeing the Congolese mobile network.

UAE telco Du has expressed frustration that it is still restricted to specific geographic areas in the country for its landline services, even though it is supposed to have a network sharing agreement with rival network, Etisalat.

Du’s CEO Osman Sultan voiced frustration with the situation, despite the two companies have been in negotiations for four years over the issue.

“It’s clear we are disadvantaged because of the limited geographical zone where we can connect customers. Opening this to the entire nation, it’s clearly a game changer,” Sultan told reporters on a conference call.

Du and Etisalat have settled the technical issues of sharing their networks, but have not agreed the financial details.

Du wants nationwide coverage for its landline services so that it can sell bundled products to its mobile customer base.

“Being able to bundle this properly will become more and more important – this is an important track of growth that we are deprived of today,” said Sultan.

Zain Bahrain has awarded a network upgrade contract to Ericsson, covering LTE equipment, and prepaid charging including consulting and systems integration services.

Ericsson will replace existing 2G and 3G radio network equipment while adding 4G functionality with the Ericsson RBS 6000 family of base stations. Ericsson will also deploy Evolved Packet Core with triple-access SGSN-MME and Ericsson Evolved Packet Gateway based on Ericsson SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers as well as MINI-LINK PT and SP for IP backhaul.