Nashua Mobile yesterday closed all its retail stores, the Saturday Star is reporting this morning.
This follows the end-September approval by the Competition Tribunal for Altech Autopage, MTN and Vodacom to take over Nashua Mobile's subscriber base.
The three deals were approved unconditionally, although undertakings were made by the acquiring companies that seeks to protect jobs at the cellular service provider, which is now set to cease to exist.
The paper reports that customers were sent messages telling them it was the "end of the road" for Nashua Mobile, while staff have also been retrenched. The closure is confirmed on Nashua Mobile's Web site, which states: "All new sales have ceased. We will continue to service your customer needs until Nashua Mobile's subscriber bases are successfully migrated. Nashua Mobile will send you a SMS message confirming the actual date of cession (transfer)."
End of an era
Nashua Mobile's eventual demise was announced in April, when parent company Reunert said it had agreed to sell its MTN and Vodacom subscriber bases to the cellphone operators for R2.26 billion. The following month, it said it would sell the 65 000-strong Cell C subscriber base, for a maximum amount of R91.5 million.
Nashua Mobile, which had around 950 000 customers in total, was formed in 2000 after Nedtel Cellular and Nashua Cellular merged. It employed some 601 staff and had 94 stores, the bulk of which were owned by franchisees at the time the sale was approved. Around 300 employees previously found alternative employment.
The service provider was set to provide Vodacom and MTN with a list of affected staff, and the mobile duopoly have committed to - for 18 months after the takeover - give preference to Nashua Mobile staff should an external vacancy arise for which they are suitably qualified.
Nashua Mobile will also seek to place any affected employees within the Reunert group within six months of the deal. Altech Autopage will also offer Nashua Mobile staff an opportunity of applying for positions, but its undertaking indicates first preference will go to staff it retrenched earlier this year.
It is not yet clear how many staff have been placed at the three companies that bought its subscriber base.
Under pressure
Reunert will earn a total maximum amount of R3.17 billion, which it will use to settle Nashua Mobile's liabilities, support its growth strategy, and then return the balance to shareholders, either through dividends, or share buybacks.
Nashua Mobile's sell-off came less than a year after it vowed to fix its reputation in a bid to win over customers. Nashua Mobile has been battling as competition between mobile operators intensified in the saturated market.
Reunert's decision was driven by the fact that Nashua Mobile was operating in a saturated, highly-competitive market, and experiencing declining average revenue per user and lower revenue streams.
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