Technology Blog of Vikas SN

Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla Group firm is on the verge of taking over Spice Communications, as the talks have reached the "advanced stage". The ball now is BK Modi's (Largest Share holder of Spice Communications) Court as he is in talks with Idea about the buyout price for his 40.8% stake in the company. According to the sources, the share price may lie between 77 -78 rupees per share i.e. around 22 billion rupees for Mr.Modi's stake.

After the merger, Idea Cellular will become the 5th largest mobile operator in India after Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone Essar and BSNL unseating Tata Teleservices.

This will also help Idea gain a strong foothold in Punjab and Karnataka circles where it had no representation though Idea already has operations in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Maharashtra, the four circles where Spice had been granted licence to operate in but is still awaiting the spectrum allocation before it could roll out services.

Being a Spice customer myself, hoping that this deal would happen for better and the services of Spice improves and not vice versa