Welcome back to another edition of M&A Monthly, where TeleGeography’s GlobalComms team tracks the deals that keep the world connected. Here’s your essential round-up of August’s top telecoms takeovers and big-money buyouts.
(Read last month’s M&A Monthly here.)
North America
The biggest deal of the month took place in the US, where Charter Communications completed its $34.5 billion mega-merger with long-time cable rival Cox Communications. The surprise cash-and-shares transaction was agreed back in May 2025. Going forward, the enlarged entity intends to change its corporate name to Cox Communications but will continue to operate using Charter’s preferred Spectrum brand across all markets.
Sticking with the US, not to be dissuaded by the looming bankruptcy proceedings hanging over his Hughes Network Systems satellite broadband business, EchoStar boss Charlie Ergen has scraped together $200 million to take control of MobileX – the MVNO backed by original Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton. The deal’s being carried out via Ergen’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), CONX Wireless Holdings, which will snag 60.93% of the equity and voting interests in MobileX. Adderton will retain a 19.42% stake, while Verizon Wireless—which currently hosts MobileX—is in line to receive a 12.5% equity stake, via its Cellco Partnership holding company. Mr. Ergen will be hoping that the venture enjoys greater success than DISH Wireless—his last attempt to disrupt the status quo. Like sister company Hughes, DISH Wireless has only succeeded in disrupting the in-tray at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Staying Stateside, satellite players Lynk Global and Omnispace announced the completion of their merger—as agreed in October 2025—and the introduction of Elveo Mobile, the new customer-facing name for the combined entity. Lynk and Omnispace’s current investors include SES, Fortress, Stepstone, Columbia Capital, Telcom Ventures and Blazar Ventures. The new player seeks to deliver a comprehensive direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity solution, which will target MNO, enterprise and government customers with its multi-orbit, multi-spectrum network architecture. Elveo’s headquarters and technology center will both be located in the Washington, DC metro area.
Latin America
South of the border, Tomas Milmo Santos, the co-chairman of the Board of Directors of Mexico’s Axtel, and a co-founder of the Monterrey-based telco, has announced his intention to acquire all of the company’s shares that aren’t currently under his control. The transaction will be carried out through 4 Tech Plus, a special purpose vehicle created for this operation, which has already submitted concurrent public tender offers for Axtel and Controladora Axtel.
In neighboring Belize, Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL) accepted the collapse of its proposed acquisition of SpeedNet Communications (Smart), after the Belizean cabinet formally rejected the deal. In an internal memo, BTL chairman Markhelm Lizarraga said: ‘We respect cabinet’s decision and the process through which it was reached … The process of how we could have expanded our business through an acquisition is now behind us. We close that chapter.’ Smart, which was valued at BZ$80 million ($38.9 million), is majority owned by former Conservative peer Lord Michael Ashcroft—who owns a 77.5% stake in the cellco via his Waterloo Group Charitable Trust holding company. His co-owners are Jaime Briceno (16.73%) and Renan Briceno (5.77%)—both of whom are related to Belize Prime Minister John Briceno.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Telecom Argentina (Personal) is reported to have proposed that B2B ISP Metrotel could acquire the mobile and fiber assets that it’s obliged to divest as part of its controversial 2025 takeover of Telefonica Argentina (Movistar). Previously, in June this year, the National Competition Agency (Agencia Nacional de Competencia, ANC) recommended the divestment of six million mobile subscriptions, more than 200,000 fixed broadband customers, and a quantity of excess spectrum.
In Brazil, international IoT firm Wireless Logic has agreed to acquire Algar Telecom’s IoT operations for R$720 million ($140.2 million). Launched in 2019, with a focus on the M2M and Point of Sale (PoS) markets, Algar’s IoT operation is currently one of the largest IoT platforms in Brazil, serving a total of 3.555 million M2M subscriptions as of 30 June 2026, alongside 607,299 PoS accounts. The completion of the transaction remains subject to the fulfilment of the usual conditions for operations of this nature, including the applicable regulatory approvals. Post-closing, Algar’s IoT unit will become part of ARQIA—the Brazilian business acquired by Wireless Logic back in 2025.
Europe
French state investment bank Bpifrance has sold a 2.5% stake in telecoms group Orange for €1.1 billion ($1.3 billion), while retaining its position alongside the French state as the telecoms operator’s largest shareholder. The bank said it was acting jointly with the state, which owns a separate stake through public shareholding agency APE. Bpifrance confirmed the two will hold a combined 20.4% stake in the telecoms operator after the deal.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) has announced that it’s acquiring Polish broadband provider INEA and its wholesale sister company Fiberhost for a combined value of around €1 billion ($1.16 billion). DT is already present in the country via its 100% subsidiary T-Mobile Poland, which is the third largest mobile network operator (MNO) and also has a growing presence in the fixed broadband sector. INEA provides fixed broadband services to around 300,000 households, while Fiberhost owns fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure covering around 1.4 million properties across Poland. INEA and Fiberhost’s current majority shareholder Macquarie Asset Management has been looking for a buyer since last year.
Africa
Investment group Augustus Capital is planning to take majority control of struggling Zimbabwean mobile operator Telecel in an effort to turn the cellco’s fortunes around. The company is looking to acquire 70% of Telecel for $175 million, buying shares previously held by Empowerment Corporation (40%) and Mutapa Investment Fund (30%). Augustus Capital has reportedly secured financing worth $127 million from Ecobank and is aiming to deploy a 4G network with equipment at 1,200 sites using ZTE as its vendor partner.
More from M&A Monthly in about four weeks’ time.
Can AI help me stay up-to-date with M&A activity?
We’re glad you asked. If you’re looking for a quick overview and background information on a market, AI is a useful way to get an idea of what’s going on there. But it’s a good idea to double check those findings, as AI often cites sources that are not authoritative and are out-of-date, incomplete, or just plain wrong.
AI tools are great at skimming the internet and sourcing data at lightning speed, but when it comes to telecom data, we often find that the articles cited by AI and fed into its answers are several years out of date—which means the facts, figures, and context to that information is also outdated.
And as people who’ve dedicated our careers to sourcing, collating, and analyzing telecom data, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention AI’s tendency to hallucinate and make up wrong answers (and then backtrack when you call it out).
Take a look at how this plays out in market research.
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