Middle East and North Africa

French media conglomerate Vivendi announced in a short statement this morning that it has called-off talks to acquire a majority stake in Zain's African mobile businesses.

The Wall Street Journal reports that India's Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN Group are on track to meet a July 31 deadline to sign a merger deal.

Kuwait-based Zain reported a 4.4 percent rise in net income for the first half of this year, but its results announcement was overshadowed by continued M&A rumours at the firm.

Mobile equipment giant Ericsson blamed the global economic situation and restructuring charges for a 61 percent decline in net profit in the second quarter.

India's Bharti and South Africa's MTN are expected to extend their merger talks by as much as four weeks due to the complexity of the deal, according to sources at Dow Jones Newswires.

In an interview with the Financial Times (FT) today, Bharti Airtel's chairman and founder, Sunil Bharti Mittal, says Bharti and MTN may remain separate entities for some time even if their current merger talks come to fruition.

Dow Jones Newswires reports that France Telecom yesterday said it would consider bidding for some of the assets owned by Kuwait-based Zain should the company decide to break up its African division.