Orascom Telecom's chairman Naguib Sawiris said his holding company Weather Investments was talking to telecommunications group Vimpelcom about a merger and was open to talks with others, Canadian paper the Global and Mail reported. This was the first time Sawiris has confirmed the talks with Vimpelcom. "We are not only talking to them, we are talking to anybody," Sawiris said. "We have two things on our agenda right now – solving the Algerian issue and, second, finding a good partner for the group." Sawiris was in Canada visiting the company's local mobile start-up Wind Mobile. He said Wind will aim to consolidate the new entrants on the market in order to better compete against the incumbents. Sawiris called the big three Canadian operators "a joke," and said two of them had already offered to buy Wind Mobile "at a very significant profit".
