Russia's VimpelCom Buys Wind Mobile In Canada 63
silverpig writes "Wind Mobile's CEO and Chairman Tony Lacavera announced on the Wind Mobile site that VimpelCom has decided to purchase Wind Telecom for $6 billion. The deal should go through by the middle of this year and may give Canadians cheaper international and roaming rates, as well as giving Wind some extra leverage with its suppliers and handset manufacturers. The deal is particularly interesting, as Wind is one of the new entrants into the Canadian wireless operator industry and has had to deal with issues regarding Canada's foreign ownership rules. Expect a lot of scrutiny from the CRTC, Bell, Telus, and Rogers."
Not exactly (Score:5, Interesting)
This Russian company didn't purchase the Canadian company. They purchased Wind Telecom S.p.A. [wikipedia.org], a company owned by an Egyptian family. That company owns 50%+1 of Orascom [wikipedia.org], which itself has a complicated relationship with Globalive, a Canadian* company that operates Wind Mobile, an upstart wireless telephone service provider in Canada. "Complicated" and "Canadian*" because the Federal Court disagrees it's Canadian, as I wrote last month [slashdot.org].