Bharti Airtel called off its talks with MTN citing too many movements from the latter as the reason. The talks of a merger were called off after MTN presented a new structure late last week that would have made Bharti Airtel an MTN subsidiary, a stance unacceptable to Bharti Airtel. MTN also wanted Sunil Bharti Mittal’s and SingTel’s stake in Bharti Airtel in exchange for a controlling stake in MTN. 

Apparently, MTN was not just talking to Bharti Airtel. Reports in the media indicate that Africa’s leading carrier with 65 million subscribers in 21 countries has been in talks with Bharti Airtel’s rival Reliance Communications, as well. In fact, the two companies have been in talks since the past 45 days, which means that the two companies were indulged in talks even before MTN courted Bharti Airtel earlier this month.