‘M&A machine’

Good morning. ☀️

Last weekend, I went out to “touch some grass.” I was at the cinema for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. It struck me that one of the world's oldest stories was being retold using some of the most advanced filmmaking technology ever created. It was truly brilliant.

Have you seen Nolan's new flick? What did you think? Packed halls and sold-out screenings at one of Lagos' cinemas suggested I wasn't the only one looking forward to it. Now, it's back to work, reporting on technology and how it affects our lives.

Let’s dive in.

—Emmanuel

For about eight years, iOCO, the South African technology provider, didn't buy a single company—quite uncharacteristically. Now it has made two acquisitions in four months, showing that the company is serious about becoming a deal-making machine again. 

What happened now? iOCO has agreed to buy Astraia Technology, a South African company that specialises in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Buying Astraia means iOCO can offer clients another service instead of watching them hire someone else. 

Explain like I’m new here: iOCO, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed company, builds software, manages IT systems, runs cloud infrastructure, provides cybersecurity, and helps large businesses modernise old technology. If a bank, retailer, or government agency needs an operator to run its digital business, that's the kind of work iOCO does. 

Why the two acquisitions matter: The company, formerly known as EOH, has spent the last eight years cleaning up after a turbulent period marked by selling off assets, restructuring debt, fixing its balance sheet, and rebuilding trust with investors. Now it appears that the turnaround phase is over.

In March, iOCO bought MySky Group, its first acquisition in nearly a decade. At the time, CEO Rhys Summerton made it clear that it wasn't a one-off. The idea, according to the company, was to save time building the technology from scratch. 

Its financial numbers allow it the liberty for these acquisitions. Based on its interim results for the six months ending January 2026, revenue rose by 3.5% to R2.8 billion ($169 million), and its profitability also increased.

Since January 2023, when Nigeria became the first African country to switch on Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite Internet company has continued to spread its wings across the continent; in some places, it has been successful, and in a few others, it’s been a bit chaotic. However, Starlink would be celebrating an important milestone: it is now live in half of Africa's 54 countries.

What's happening: On Friday, Starlink launched in Côte d'Ivoire, allowing citizens to legally buy and use the service, after months of repeated warnings from regulators. Users can buy residential plans that offer up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) in Internet speed, among the fastest on the continent.

Explain like I’m new here: The launch follows the Ivorian government's decision to grant Starlink a 12-month provisional licence after months of regulatory back-and-forth. This back-and-forth is becoming one of the company's trademarks, as evidenced in markets like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it was initially banned before being licenced, and South Africa and Namibia, where ownership rules continue to keep it waiting.

Doesn't Côte d'Ivoire already have satellite Internet? Sure, but having the birthright doesn't always guarantee the throne. In January, Orange Côte d'Ivoire, a telecom operator, partnered with French satellite company Eutelsat to launch Orange Sat, while MTN Côte d'Ivoire struck its own deal with Eutelsat to offer satellite connectivity. However, they use satellite capacity to extend their existing networks into places where laying fibre or building mobile towers is too expensive. Customers can still buy Internet from Orange or MTN, unlike Starlink, which sells dishes directly to households.

Now the hard part: Starlink says it plans to launch in another 18 African countries before the end of 2026. Several countries, including South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Sudan, still have no planned launch date, largely because of licencing hurdles, local ownership rules, or state-controlled telecom markets. Starlink made it to 27, but will it get to 54? It remains to be seen.

If you've ever used a virtual private network (VPN) to watch a show that wasn't available in your country, you've already seen how the internet can ignore borders. Kenya has decided that online gambling shouldn't.

What's happening? Kenya's new Gaming Regulatory Authority (GRAK), the country’s e-gaming regulator, will require foreign betting companies licenced in the country to block people in Kenya from accessing their offshore gambling websites. Companies that fail to install geo-blocking technology could face fines of up to KES50 million ($388,000). It is part of the country’s drive to curb unchecked gambling, after proposing in June that family members be allowed to ask regulators to block relatives from betting. 

Explain like I'm new here: Some betting companies operate multiple websites. One is licensed in Kenya and pays Kenyan taxes. Another is based offshore, where taxes may be lower or regulations looser. Without geo-blocking, a Kenyan gambler could simply use the offshore site instead, allowing the operator to keep serving Kenyan customers while sidestepping local tax and regulatory obligations.

Geo-blocking uses tools such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses and identity verification to detect where someone is connecting from. If they're in Kenya, access to the offshore platform is denied.

Why does Kenya care? It's about more than gambling. Every bet placed through a licenced operator generates tax revenue. Punters pay a 5% excise tax on every stake and a 20% withholding tax on winnings, while betting companies pay betting tax, corporate tax, and other levies. Kenya wants those taxes collected on gambling by Kenyans, regardless of where the website is hosted.

Will it work? Not perfectly. VPNs can disguise a user's location, and some offshore operators accept cryptocurrency, making them harder to police. But the rules give regulators another enforcement tool against companies targeting Kenyan gamblers from abroad.

Zoom out: Governments are finding that regulating the Internet increasingly means regulating geography. From streaming services and AI models to gambling and digital taxes, countries are using geo-blocking to make global online businesses follow local rules. The Internet may be borderless by design, but governments are steadily drawing digital borders.

Nine months ago, selling a majority stake in its data centre subsidiary looked like a sensible move for Telecom Egypt, the state-controlled telco that dominates the country’s connectivity. It would have monetised a non-core asset, brought in specialists, and redeployed the capital to other businesses. 

But on Thursday, the company cancelled its deal to sell a 75-80% stake in its Regional Data Center Hub (RDH) to Helios Investment Partners, an Africa-focused private equity firm.

What happened? Telecom Egypt announced a $230 million deal with Helios in September 2025. Now, the operator says that ‘conditions were not met,’ a phrase that often masks a shift in strategic priorities or a valuation gap. Instead of handing over the keys, Telecom Egypt will carve out RDH as a wholly owned subsidiary with its own specialist team. 

Explain like I'm new here: Data centres, the physical buildings that house the servers powering cloud computing, AI, and Internet traffic, have become significantly more valuable assets in the past 18 months as African data centre investment hit record levels in 2025, with companies like Raxio, an African data centre operator, raising $380 million to meet demand. These facilities have changed from utility buildings into digital gold mines. Telecom Egypt’s RDH is strategically positioned because it sits at the heart of the company’s massive national and international subsea cable network.

Why now? The pendulum has shifted; what looked like a tidy divestment last year now looks like letting go of a core growth engine. Egypt is seeing a massive infrastructure push, with Oracle opening its second Egypt R&D hub in July. Hassan Allam Digital Infrastructure signed a $400 million data centre licencing deal in June. Telecom Egypt likely realised that internalising the growth of RDH offers better long-term returns for shareholders than a one-time injection from a sale. 

Zoom out: Telecom Egypt walking away from the deal is a clear signal that operators believe the market for data will be significantly larger than it looks today. The company that was ready to sell nine months ago now thinks the asset is too valuable to let go. In the world of infrastructure, ownership is power, and Telecom Egypt just decided it isn’t ready to share.