Emad Makiya has resigned from his position as CEO of Zain Iraq and will be temporarily replaced by the company’s chairman of the board, Mohammed Charchafchi, the cellco said in a statement.

"Zain Iraq … today confirmed that Emad Makiya will step down as chief executive officer of Zain Iraq with immediate effect," the statement read.

The cellco added that Makiya will continue to advise the chairman and interim CEO, Mohammed Charchafchi.

Emad Makiya became CEO of Zain Iraq in June 2010.

In July, Zain Iraq was slapped with a US$12,864 a day fine from September 2011, for failing to list on the country’s stock exchange, according to a report from Reuters. Zain Iraq’s competitors, Asiacell and Korek, had already received fines of US$8,500 and US$2,500 per day respectively for failing to list their shares on the stock market.

Zain Iraq had 12.8 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2012, representing 31 per cent of Zain Group’s customer base.

The cellco’s net income rose 16 per cent to US$174.9 million in H112.

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has been given the go ahead to make a bid to buy the shares in Kuwait-based operator Wataniya Telecom that it does not already own.

The Kuwait Capital Markets Authority has approved the company’s offer document meaning it can proceed with its mandatory tender offer of KWD622.4 million (US$2.2 billion).

The bid equates to KWD2.60 per share, a 22.6 per cent premium on the closing price on June 21, the last trading day before the offer document was first submitted. The offer is for 239.4 million shares and does not take into account any provision for commission, taxes or government charges.

Qtel already controls 52.5 per cent of Wataniya Telecom stock, and on June 21 tabled an offer for the remaining 47.5 per cent.

Virgin Mobile South Africa has announced the appointment of Jonathan Marchbank as the company’s new CEO. He replaces Steve Bailey, who resigned at the beginning of June after confirmation that Dubai-based MVNO Friendi Group and Virgin Group intended to merge their operations in the Middle East and Africa, including Virgin Mobile South Africa.

Marchbank was most recently heading up the Virgin Mobile’s activities in Asia, prior to which he served as the COO for Virgin Mobile USA, a business with over five million mobile customers. Prior to that, Marchbank was the CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia and Asia.

Marchbank has also served as managing director of Telstra’s mobile business in Australia, having spent the previous 10 years as managing director at Nokia and Philips in Asia and Australia.

Virgin Mobile South Africa has around 400,000 subscribers and is yet to make a profit after six years of operations.

Palestine Telecommunications (PalTel) announced that its first-half revenues were essentially flat, up by 0.3 per cent to reach US$258 million.

Net income fell to US$58 million, compared with US$67 million a year ago. The decline is mainly attributable to the devaluation of the Israeli shekel and as a direct result of the company’s decision to postpone the 50 per cent tax exemption for two years in response to a request by the government in order to alleviate the public financial crisis.

Another factor is the new income tax bracket of 20 per cent imposed this year by the government compared to 7.5 per cent the year before. As a result of the fiscal crisis in the public sector, the tax authorities in Palestine have declared a new tax scheme raising the corporate tax rate from 15 per cent to 20 per cent starting January 2012.

Mobile subscribers grew by 7.8 per cent to stand at 2.61 million at the end of H112 compared with 2.42 million at the end of 2011, and grew by 12.9 per cent compared with the end of H111 where the total number of subscribers numbered 2.31 million. 89.9 per cent of subscribers at the end of June 2012 were prepaid with the remaining 10.1 per cent being comprised of post-paid users.

Motorola Mobility is to slash 20 per cent of its workforce as its new parent Google seeks to refocus the handset-maker on fewer markets and a slimmed down product portfolio.

Some 4,000 jobs will be cut in total – a third in the US – while a third of its 94 offices worldwide will be closed. Google closed its US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola in May, a deal motivated in large part by Google’s desire to take over Motorola’s rich portfolio of wireless patents.

Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s new chief executive (installed by Google), confirmed the restructuring plans in an interview with the New York Times.

He said that the vendor also planned to cut the number of devices Motorola makes from the 27 it launched last year to just a few high end models.

“We’re excited about the smartphone business,” said Woodside. “The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it’s really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer.”

Motorola Mobility lost US$233 million in its first six weeks under Google, according to Google’s latest quarterly results.