Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Tuesday said that it had completed acquisition of 74 per cent capital of Augere Wireless Broadband India Private Ltd (Augere).
This is in line with the country’s largest telecom provider’s earlier announcement to acquire Augere that will allow Airtel take its 4G operations to nine circles.
“With reference to the intimation regarding approval of scheme of amalgamation of Augere with Airtel dated October 27, Bharti Airtel Ltd has now informed BSE that Airtel has acquired 74 per cent capital of Augere. With the aforesaid acquisition, Augere has become a subsidiary of Airtel,” the company said.
Augere holds 20 MHz of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in the telecom circles of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The company did not disclose the deal size but sources said it could be in the range of ₹130-150 crore. Augere had won the spectrum in 2010 for ₹122 crore. The acquisition would enhance the company’s strength in 4G, which it had launched recently.
Meanwhile, Airtel also announced the beta launch of ‘Wynk Games’ — the latest over-the-top (OTT) addition to its content portfolio.
‘Wynk Games’ subscription is free for Airtel users and at ₹29 for other customers in the app’s current beta phase, the company said in a statement.
‘Wynk Games’ is a mobile app-based gaming destination to host over 2,000 games (including several premium and paid titles at no additional cost) and offer an exhaustive catalogue of local and global games across genres such as cricket, sports, racing, adventure, cards, kids and puzzles.
“By subscribing to ‘Wynk Games’, customers can enjoy a host of games at no additional cost – this includes many games that are typically found as ‘paid’ elsewhere,” Kartik Sheth, Chief Executive Officer – Wynk, Airtel said.
Ties up with Playphone Aimed at providing a comprehensive range of ‘Wynk Games’, Airtel has tied up with Playphone Inc, a GungHo Subsidiaria and Softbank group company based in San Mateo, California. This alliance also presents opportunities for Indian developers as well, the company said.
Developers require only about 10 lines of code to adapt their app to the subscription platform for ‘Wynk Games’ and can register online, he added.
Airtel’s shares closed at ₹334.45 on the BSE on Tuesday, up one per cent from the previous close.