{"id":27782,"date":"2012-12-03T16:06:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T14:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=27782"},"modified":"2012-12-04T12:48:45","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T10:48:45","slug":"vodacom-investments-in-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/27782\/vodacom-investments-in-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom investments under the microscope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vodacom<\/a>\u2019s performance in the investment arena has come under the spotlight recently with high profile failures, including\u00a0Gogga<\/a>,\u00a0Zoopy<\/a>, Vodacom Gated Services,\u00a0The Grid<\/a>, and\u00a0Gateway<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the companies which Vodacom invested in accused the operator of not providing the support promised, and reneging on its side of the partnership.<\/p>\n

The former Gogga Connect CEO, a company in which Vodacom had a stake, went further and accused the mobile giant of being \u201c100% responsible for killing Gogga\u201d.<\/p>\n

This raises the question how Vodacom performed when looking at a wide range of its investments, which include operational investments and higher risk ventures.<\/p>\n

According to information gathered from Vodacom\u2019s annual reports and industry sources Vodacom does not have a great investment track record.<\/p>\n

The following table provides an overview of many of Vodacom\u2019s investments over the last few years.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\nReason for investment<\/strong><\/td>\nDate (approximate)<\/strong><\/td>\nStatus<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Successful investments<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xlink Communications (Pty) Ltd (75% plus control)<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nNovember 2007<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
G-Mobile Holdings Ltd<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nSeptember 2007<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stortech (75% plus control)<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nFebruary 2009<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Afrigis<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nJuly 2009<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Unsuccessful investments<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gogga Tracking Solutions (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nDuring 2007<\/td>\nExited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
WBS Holdings (Pty) Ltd t\/a iBurst<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nOctober 2007<\/td>\nExited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Westside Trading 163 (Pty) Ltd t\/a Vodacom Gated Services<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nMid 2008<\/td>\nExited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zoopy (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nVenture<\/td>\nJune 2008<\/td>\nStill invested, Vodacom looking to exit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The Grid (Division of Vodacom)<\/td>\nCreated by Vodacom<\/td>\nDuring 2007<\/td>\nClosed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Gateway<\/td>\nOperational<\/td>\nDecember 2008<\/td>\nExited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other operational and regulatory investment<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Smartphone SP (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nOperational<\/td>\nAugust 2007<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Waterberg Lodge (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nOperational<\/td>\nDuring 2008<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Vodacom Converged Solutions (Division of Vodacom)<\/td>\nOperational<\/td>\nDuring 2007<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wheatfields Investments 276 (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nHolding treasury shares on behalf of the Group<\/td>\nNovember 2009<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
National Porting Company (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nRequirement by ICASA \u2013 MTN and CellC other shareholders with equal share<\/td>\nAugust 2007<\/td>\nStill invested<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Africell Cellular Services (Pty) Ltd<\/td>\nOperational<\/td>\nOctober 2006<\/td>\nAmalgamated into VSP<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

Feedback from companies in which Vodacom invested<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feedback from the companies in which Vodacom invested and holds a stake was mixed.\u00a0 Many of these companies would not comment on their relationship with Vodacom.<\/p>\n

Xlink<\/a>\u00a0said that they would prefer not to comment on whether the Vodacom investment helped the company and whether it worked out as they expected.<\/p>\n

Zoopy founder and former CEO\u00a0Jason Elk<\/a>\u00a0said that he has moved on and would rather not comment on the past [hence Vodacom\u2019s investment in Zoopy and whether Vodacom stuck to its end of the bargain].<\/p>\n

AfriGIS and Stortech \u2013 which recently announced that its CEO Tim Knowles had resigned \u2013 also did not comment on Vodacom\u2019s shareholding in the company.<\/p>\n

Googa Connect\u2019s former CEO\u00a0Eugene Beetge<\/a>\u00a0was less diplomatic, saying that Vodacom did not support Gogga as agreed. \u201cThe original deal was loosely based on a verbal agreement with everything in e-mail. This was all thrown aside when it didn\u2019t suit Vodacom Service Provider\u2019s model,\u201d said Beetge.<\/p>\n

Beetge added that Vodacom was \u201c100% responsible for killing Gogga.\u201d He said it was not a good period in his life, fighting against what he once believed could have been a good partnership.<\/p>\n

However, it is not all doom and gloom.\u00a0\u00a0Wireless G<\/a>\u00a0CEO\u00a0Carel van der Merwe<\/a>\u00a0said that the Vodacom partnership deal does provide benefits to Wireless G.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have invested more than 30 million rand in our billing engine to cater for our own as well as Vodacom Wi-Fi needs,\u201d said van der Merwe.<\/p>\n

He added that Wireless G\u2019s recipe for success with the partnership with Vodacom is to gain top level support in Vodacom, but to stay focused on execution.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s The Grid shut down date<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Stortech head steps down<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom planning to sell stake in Zoopy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom’s performance in the investment arena has come under the spotlight recently with high profile failures, including Gogga, Zoopy, Vodacom Gated Services, The Grid, and Gateway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,1],"tags":[4753,26,4090,27,2180,1269],"class_list":["post-27782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","category-trending","tag-gogga","tag-headline","tag-the-grid","tag-vodacom","tag-wi-fi","tag-zoopy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27782"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27827,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27782\/revisions\/27827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}