The unit of Britain's Vodafone made the changes to the deal after the Competition Commission, which investigates deals for anti-trust issues, recommended to the Competition Tribunal that the deal should be approved on condition that Vodacom waits two years before using Neotel spectrum.
Under the modified deal, Vodacom would only buy the assets related to Neotel's fixed-line business but not its frequency spectrum, the company said in a statement. Vodacom said it would offer roaming arrangements to all mobile operators including itself.
Vodacom bought Neotel, South Africa's second-biggest fixed-line operator, in a deal that gave it much-coveted radio frequency spectrum that would allow it to roll-out a high-speed 4G network to meet surging demand for data.
The Competition Tribunal adjudicates on findings of the Competition Commission.
The transaction to buy Neotel, owned by India's Tata Communications, was opposed by mobile rivals
Vodacom said the Competition Tribunal is set to consider the revised deal at a pre-hearing on Dec. 10.
Vodacom was also required by the Competition Commission to invest 10 billion rand ($688.11 million) in a fixed-line network within the next five years and place a moratorium on job cuts.
By: Reuters.
Dow Chemical and Dupont in chemicals mega-merger talks.
Dow and DuPont have market capitalizations of almost $59 billion each.
Dow's chief executive Andrew Liveris would likely become executive chairman of the new company and DuPont CEO Edward Breen would be chief executive, the WSJ reported.
A Reuters report on the potential deal noted that the merger would need regulatory approval in several countries, and would allow the companies to separate out business units that promised growth from those that were struggling. Specialty chemicals have benefited from lower energy costs, while agrichemicals have been hit by weak demand for crop protection products, Reuters wrote.
So far, there have been $4.35 trillion worth of takeovers in 2015, beating 2007 as the top year for M&A, the WSJ reported.
By: CNBC.
Yahoo will not spin off Alibaba stake, weighs core business sale.
The moves represent a stark
rejection of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer's plan to sell the
$30 billion Alibaba stake and to revive Yahoo's core Internet unit
focusing on growing mobile, video and social media ads.
Yahoo
could not immediately be reached for comment. Its shares rose more than
2 percent in after-hours trading. Alibaba's shares rose 1.3 percent.
Yahoo's
core business consists of selling search and display ads on its popular
news and sports sites, email service and products like Tumblr.
Yahoo
is also considering what to do with its stake in Yahoo Japan ,
according to the CNBC report. Yahoo owns 35 percent of that company,
worth about $8.5 billion at current exchange rates.
The
CNBC report on Tuesday, which cited unnamed sources, did not disclose a
possible sale price for the core Internet unit. Analysts and bankers
have estimated it could fetch between $2 billion and $8 billion, with
many seeing $4 billion as the likely price, but some regard its value as
less than zero.
The
CNBC report indicated the sale process could take a year or more. But
one analyst, Robert Peck with SunTrust, said he expected the company to
expedite the process. Three to six months is reasonable, he said,
"depending on who acquires it."
After such a sale, all that would be left, essentially, would be the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes.
“This
is absolutely a step in the right direction," said Neil Doshi, an
analyst at Mizuho Securities USA. "We’d much rather see Yahoo either
spin off or potentially sell the core and have a tax liability on a
smaller piece than have it on the larger Alibaba piece.” 
Private
equity, media and Internet firms are potential buyers. On Monday, the
chief financial officer of Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) said the
No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier could look at buying Yahoo's core business,
but made no mention of a price.
The latest report followed a
three-day meeting of Yahoo's board of directors last week, which
concluded on Friday. Yahoo has faced pressure from activist investor
Starboard Value LP to sell the core business rather than proceed with
the planned spin-off of its stake in Alibaba, which could trigger large
tax payments.
In
January, announcing the Alibaba plan, Mayer said the deal would be
tax-free, but the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has declined to verify
that. Taxes related to the spin-off could leave Yahoo shareholders on
the hook for $12 billion.
"This
was really a really good PR move by Starboard as the spinoff was highly
unlikely anyway given the tax implications and they knew they could
claim victory once Yahoo made the official announcement,” said Jim Osman
of The Edge Consulting Group, a research firm that advises activist
hedge funds.
The
sale of the company's core Internet business would effectively end
Yahoo's role as a key U.S. tech company and be a recognition that
Mayer's efforts to revive the businesses have yielded few results.
But Doshi, of Mizuho Securities, said that was not necessarily a defeat for Mayer.
“This
is a potential win-win for Marissa," Doshi said. "She can sell the
company and have a graceful exit or she can be part of a larger company
or private equity team and still continue to run the business."
Reporting: Kshitiz Goliya (Bengaluru), Michael Flaherty (New York),
and Deborah M. Todd (San Francisco).
Writing: Bill Rigby.
Editing:
Maju Samuel, Bernard Orr and Leslie Adler.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit Flagship Records.
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