America Movil may acquire a 28% stake in KPN for $4.2 billion (Latin America, Europe)
Telecom group America Movil has reportedly made an offer to acquire 28 percent of Dutch telecom company KPN for $10.37 a share. According to reports, the deal valued to be $4.2 billion would enable America Movil to enhance its presence in the Europe market, so as to make up for the stagnant growth in its domestic market.
Carlos Garcia Moreno, CFO, said that America Movil is a long-term investor and they think if the company executes the strategy well, it will perform well. It’s a company that should benefit for the long term.
He added that KPN is the target for their first investment. Europe is facing some times which are economically challenging. They have a long-term investment horizon. They have taken their time. This one seems to make a lot of sense. Further, KPN is a solid company and in the long term seems to be a good return on investment. This is a market they do not know. Being closer to the action through the likes of KPN can give a better view for them.
Millicom partners with Western Union for Cross-Border Mobile Money Transfer Services (Latin America)
Western Union, a leader in global payment services, and Millicom International Cellular, a leading mobile operator in 13 markets across Latin America and Africa operating under the Tigo brand, have signed an agreement to introduce cross-border mobile money transfers in Latin America, as per an announcement at the Mobile World Congress 2012.
The first cross-border money transfer service under this agreement will be launched soon in Paraguay under the Giros Tigo brand (Tigo Cash). Millicom will then be able to offer its customers in Paraguay the ability to receive money across borders using their mobile phones.
The service will be rolled out over time in other markets in Latin America. This agreement will allow millions of Tigo customers to benefit from Western Union’s extensive network of more than 450,000 agent locations across 200 countries and territories, whilst Western Union will deepen its distribution reach in the markets in which Millicom operates.
Diane Scott, chief marketing officer and president, Western Union Ventures, has said that they’re excited to join forces with Millicom, their first mobile money partner in Latin America. As a leader in moving money around the world via a variety of channels — retail and electronic — it’s important that they continue to evolve and expand their services so they are even more convenient to use and accessible to as many people as possible. Further, they’re uniquely positioned to do this with their network of more than 450,000 agent locations, long-standing experience in moving money, and agreements with leading telecommunications groups like Millicom.
Marcelo Cataldo, Head of Mobile Financial Services, Millicom Latin America, has said that they are pleased to be the first in Latin America to be launching a cross-border money transfer service in partnership with Western Union. Also, they continuously strive to offer their customers useful and affordable services, from communication to entertainment and mobile financial services.
In Paraguay, they have been offering mobile financial services for over 18 months and, in the last quarter of 2011, around 20 per cent of their customers used these facilities. With the addition of cross-border mobile money transfer services which they will soon provide in conjunction with Western Union, they aim to bring additional benefits to a growing number of their customers in Latin America.
Specific services under this agreement will vary by country, but over time, Tigo customers in most of Millicom’s Latin American markets will be able to receive money from Western Union customers directly into their mobile accounts. They will also be able to cash out transactions at any Tigo location offering the Giros Tigo facility.
Western Union offers its Mobile Money Transfer service in Bangladesh, Canada, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Tanzania and the U.S.
Millicom offers Mobile Financial Services and in particular in-market money transfers in Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Tanzania, Ghana and Rwanda and will extend its offering to more services and into more markets over time.
America Movil Partners with Appia for the launch of ‘iApps’ (Latin America)
Wireless service provider America Movil, has announced the launch of its iApps Application Stores powered by Appia, bringing a vast catalog of apps and games to all America Movil subscribers across Latin America. According to company reports, the iApps Application Stores are now available through America Movil’s operating partners Claro, Comcel, and Telcel reaching over 240 million mobile subscribers in 18 countries across Latin America including Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
Marco Quatorze, Director of Value Added Services, America Movil, has said that with the launch of the Application Stores powered by Appia to all America Movil subscribers, Apps are now available to the majority of Latin American Mobile subscribers. Further, Appia’s carrier-grade solution enabled them to quickly roll out the largest Application Store across Latin America.
Appia’s Application Catalog includes thousands of applications and games for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Java phones. The iApps Application Stores include both paid and free applications such as social media, news, weather and sports apps in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Leading application developers including Rovio and Gameloft are distributing their app through the iApps Application store, along with internationally recognized application developers including Facebook, Electronic Arts, and MocoSpace.
Lukasz Deszczulka, Executive VP Marketing, Tequila Mobile, has said that America Movil’s iApps Application Stores have been a great source of traffic for them. Also, the Latin American apps market is growing rapidly, and Appia and America Movil have made it incredibly easy to reach users and generate downloads.
Jud Bowman, CEO, Appia, has said that Appia is excited to partner with America Movil to bring apps to the hundreds of millions of mobile subscribers in North, Central and South America. As app use continues to grow globally, Latin American is a phenomenal opportunity for application distribution and we expect tremendous growth in app consumption.
Open Mobile may be the first to launch 4G LTE services in Latin America
Puerto Rican network operator, Open Mobile, is reportedly planning to launch 4G LTE mobile broadband services in Latin America along with Sweden based Ericsson, a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators globally. As per reports, Neville Cruz, CTO, Open Mobile said that the companies have worked closely to rapidly build a high-quality 4G LTE network and that the LTE rollout would continue in metropolitan areas during the remainder of 2011 and early 2012.
Sources claim that Frank Bell, President, Open Mobile has said that being at the forefront of broadband evolution means that the customers in Puerto Rico will be the first in Latin America to benefit from this groundbreaking technology. He added that having an experienced partner in LTE deployment like Ericsson is a key step towards bringing their customers the fastest mobile broadband network. Industry sources reveal that of the many networks aiming to launch LTE services in Latin America, US-based AT&T and Mexican-based Claro have been targeting Puerto Rico for the launch of their services by early 2012.
America Movil and Citigroup to launch mobile banking services (Latin America)
America Movil, Mexico based wireless service provider, has reportedly entered into a joint venture with Citigroup to provide mobile banking services in Latin America. The $50 million venture has been named ‘Transfer’ and is expected to begin in Mexico by early next year.
As per reports, the joint venture will enable customers to open bank accounts, transfer money, withdraw cash from the ATMs along with shop, receive payments and pay bills via their mobile handsets. The service will initially be offered to clients of Citi’s Mexican subsidiary, Banamex and Telcel.
Manuel Medina-Mora, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Latin America & Mexico of Citigroup Inc. has reportedly said that the governments could use ‘Transfer’ as a platform for making benefits available to the poor, as well as for civil service payroll.
ONYX inks deal to offer Digium Communications Software and Hardware to Latin America and Caribbean
ONYX Tech Distribution, a distributor of core IP Products and Computer Accessories, announced today that they are pleased to have signed an agreement to become an authorized Digium® distributor for the Latin American and Caribbean regions.
“We are excited to add the Digium product line to our IP telephony portfolio of brands”
“We are excited to add the Digium product line to our IP telephony portfolio of brands,” said Redford Roach, Director of ONYX Tech Distribution. “Digium products complement the lines that we offer to our channels in Latin America, especially those resellers servicing small to medium sized businesses and providing high-end business phone systems that companies could not generally afford with traditional PBX costs. Our customers, corporations with multiple-branches nationally or internationally, are adopting IP technology rapidly. It’s an exploding digital universe. We know IP telephony is the future of enterprise telecommunications, and Digium is IP telephony.”
Digium is the creator, sponsor and driving force behind Asterisk®, the most widely used open source telephony software. The company’s product lines include a wide range of hardware and software to enable resellers and businesses to implement custom solutions or to design their own voice over IP (VoIP) systems. Digium also provides the award-winning Switchvox family of turnkey unified communications (UC) solutions for small and medium enterprises.
Roach continued: “Being a Digium distributor and partner will boost our strategy and focus of IP technology in our markets. We are excited about the opportunity to supply Latin American companies with the finest in IP-PBX and voice technology products.”
“Organizations in nearly every country of the world have chosen to create business phone systems based on Asterisk and Digium hardware because they can be customized to meet nearly any telephony requirements, work with existing phones and are very cost-effective,” said Gayle Magee, director of worldwide distribution sales at Digium. “Partnering with ONYX Tech Distribution will allow us to better access and serve businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean with Asterisk and Digium hardware, as well as our Switchvox family of unified communications solutions for companies that want an easy, out-of-the-box solution.”
About Digium
Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, created, owns and is the innovative force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software. Since its founding in 1999, Digium has become the open source alternative to proprietary communication providers, with offerings that cost as much as 80 percent less. Digium offers Asterisk software free to the open source community and offers Switchvox IP PBX software to power a broad family of products for small, medium and large businesses. The company’s product line includes a wide range of hardware and software to enable resellers and customers to implement turnkey VoIP systems or to design their own custom telephony solutions. More information is available at http://www.digium.com.
The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk, Asterisk SCF, Switchvox, Asterisk Business Edition, AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Appliance and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
www.digium.com
About ONYX Tech Distribution
ONYX Tech Distribution services resellers, VARS and original equipment manufacturers in Latin America.
Onyx provides specialized lines in IP Products, Computer Hardware, and Accessories. Onyx’s multi-market expertise, focused account reps, service and ongoing educational programs, provides a one-stop-stop solution to its customer base. This level of all-around support enables ONYX resellers and dealers to become pioneers (and beneficiaries) of the new technological revolutions, in IP technologies, computer Onyx’s effort is focused on creating, building, maintaining, and improving efficient, profitable, and mutually beneficial relationships with their brands, revolutionary technologies, and channel partners. www.onyxtd.com
Telefonica partners with Cellcrypt to launch encrypted Voice services (Latin America)
Cellcrypt, the leading provider of encrypted voice calling on mobile phones, today announced that it reached an agreement with Telefónica, one of the largest telecom operators in the world, to include Cellcrypt Mobile™ in their product and service portfolio across the 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean where Telefónica operates.
Cellcrypt Mobile is used by governments and corporations globally and is a downloadable application for off-the-shelf smartphones that provides end-to-end encryption of voice calls over cellular (2G, 3G), Wi-Fi and satellite networks. Cellcrypt Mobile is certified to U.S. government National Institute of Standards and Technology FIPS 140-2 security standard and has been awarded the CESG Claims Tested Mark (CCTM) from the U.K. government’s information assurance authority.
The announcement is part of an extensive partnership agreement that allows Telefónica to promote, sell and support Cellcrypt Mobile and associated technologies within certain countries.
As Governments and Corporations increasingly use cell phones for operational and administrative communications they have an increased need for government-grade protection from increasingly sophisticated unauthorized interception threats. This protection is required end-to-end so as to assure users that they control the security of calls along all points of the call path between caller and recipient, and have adequately mitigated risks in compliance with internal security policies.
Cellcrypt’s software provides end-to-end voice call encryption on smartphones making secure calling with high voice quality and low latency as easy as a normal cell phone call. Utilizing the IP data channel, secure calls can be made using both Telefónica’s cellular and Wi-Fi® networks from the same handset. As a software-only solution, deployment to personnel can take as little as 10 minutes anywhere in the world. Only Internet access is required.
“We are delighted to be able to offer our government and corporate customers an end-to-end encrypted voice calling capability with strong, accredited cryptography and requiring no physical hardware. This is important as our customers have a need for rapid and flexible deployment and redeployment,” said Raul Fraile, Deputy Director Business Development, Applications and Partner Relationships of Telefónica Latinoamérica, “and the ability to have interoperability between several different brands of popular smartphones is also very important to more broadly meet the diverse needs of our customers.“
“Cell phones are the most convenient, and often only, option for many operational and administrative communications across governments and business – just as they are in our personal lives,” said Richard Greco, CEO of Cellcrypt. “One problem with cell phone eavesdropping is that you rarely know it has happened. Rather than hope that the inevitable sensitive and confidential conversations that occur on cell phones are not compromised, this solution means that Telefónica customers can depend on their cell phones to be a secure and exploit their mobility, convenience, ease-of-use and interoperability as an important communications asset.”
Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of number of accesses and market capitalization. Its activities are centered mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both. The company has a customer base of more than 290 million customers around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy. Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders.
For more information please visit: www.telefonica.com.
Samsung revenues to cross $10 bn in 2012 (Latin America)
Samsung Electronics in Latin American intends to reach US$10 billion revenues in markets by 2012.
Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung has stated that the company believes more business opportunities will emerge in the regio. Samsung expects US$8.5 billion in annual sales in the Central and South American markets by the end of this year, and that will be increased to US$10 billion next year.
Samsung operates two manufacturing plants in Mexico and Brazil, and has three parts suppliers in Argentina.
CEO added that Samsung should grow further, which means that they should spend big in pushing for strong expansions in emerging markets when developed markets are showing signs of stagnating.
Celistics names Nokia’s Gallego as CCO for LatAm
Celistics has appointed Juan Maria Gallego-Toledo as its chief commercial officer.
In his new position, Gallego will head the growth strategy for Celistics’ development of retail channels, physical and virtual, across Latin American markets.
Gallego’s main objective will be to strengthen Celistics’ expansion efforts with the creation of new retail distribution channels. Gallego will oversee new direct retail distribution models as well as monitoring product sales and services for mobile operators. Gallego brings to Celistics over 17 years of experience from Nokia.
Gallego began his career at Nokia as director of sales for Latin America in 1994 within the area of business development for mobile phones. In 2003 he joined Nokia Spain, where he served as global account director of Telefonica Moviles. Before his appointment in Celistics and since 2006, Gallego served as general director of Telefonica for Nokia in Spain.
In 2008 he assumed responsibility for the development and implementation of Nokia’s business strategy in China.
PC sales to grow by 13% Latin America
A recent research has revealed that the sale of computers, including desktops, notebooks and netbooks will this year rise 13 percent in Latin America.
The total sale of these products should reach the mark of 36.3 million units, with sales volumes of netbooks up 29 percent fron the year before, encouraged by state education policies in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela.
The forecast shows the sale of 7.4 million units. Notebook sales will maintain their high growth rates, an increase of 18 percent over 2010, reaching 13.1 million units sold. For their part, desktops should face slower growth in the medium and long term, only 3 percent over 2010.
The demand from home and corporate users will bring the number of desktops sold to about 15.7 million units.
