After the Wedding comes the Marriage

This week i carried out a search on Mergers and Acquisitions. I found a treasure trove of information
on the Investopedia page. Some of the highlights are the differences that they describe between the
merger and the acquisition. The former is usually carried out in the interest of business where the two come
together to leverage on each of their individual strengths. The maths used is 1+1=3.
The page also points out that even when an acquisition occurs, it is often in the interest of the 'acquired' to think of it in other terms. I guess what stands out most about this is the idea that if both companies are listed on the exchange, the implications of a merger or an acquisition is always a rather serious matter.

I am trying to figure out what this means for Airtel and Warid Telecom both of which are said to have some Asian Ownership. Because they are foreign companies...not listed locally, the implications of their marriage are still quite interesting. The arbiter in our case was the Uganda Communications Commission whose decision was to give them the go ahead.
We have not yet created a vibrant set of rules to govern what the Americans and Europeans refer to as Monopolies and for which behemoths like Microsoft have suffered greatly for but the silence of other local players like MTN, Orange and Uganda Telecom seems to have signaled or at least been interpreted as a thumbs up.

On a more personal level. My biggest qualms with Warid were with thier customer support which had been outsourced.
But i kept using the service because on the whole the service was good and had allowed me to increase my business space. You could even classify me as rather obsessive but the chances are, we often stay faithful to companies because of people we meet and contacts we establish. In addition to this, the companies we work with represent an aspect of Democracy-the power of institutions. My argument is that shoud we see a decline in the governments we have put in place, we will often invest our trust in companies and organizations that in our view present some semblance of order.

The union of the two groups therefore is a good thing, because it allows the two companies to increase the scope of their services. It allows the use of Warid Telecom's Ingenious Advertising campaigns dubbed 'Paka' to merge with Airtel's amazing ability to use of Superstars and Promote Sports. In addition to this it allows
Warid to take advantage of its Infrastructure (possibly the best in the country), and the idea that it was the first company to set up services in Uganda to link up with a relatively fresh faced Warid.

The challenges would be structural and in my view could be the cause of
a lot of heart ache for the respective teams. If decision were made laterally in one and vertically in another, this could be a problem. If governance was external for one and internal for another, this could also increase the stress.

In my view the teams have probably drawn up a chart from which to manage the transition. In that list are issues like number codes (075 and 070), logo changes, brand issues (color will present the least problem), management and leadership structure
and many more. I suspect none of the groups will challenge the other on its company Ethos but some issues are bound to arise around vision (and its distinctiveness). Warid will bring to the table its experience in the Asian (Indian) Markets and i would even suggest bring to the table deals with Mobile Players like Intex. Airtel will help manage the challenges of change (having handled the change from Celtel to Zain to the current Airtel).

The Future is therefore bright for these two groups and will present a lot of study material for business students and workers alike!