for cellular radio networks see cellular network . mtn group type public company traded as jse mtn industry telecommunications founded 1994 headquarters johannesburg south africa key people phuthuma nhleko executive chairman products gsm related products internet services revenue us 15.432 billion 2015 operating income us 5.22 billion 2015 net income us 3.345 billion 2015 total assets us 13.762 billion 2015 total equity us 12.433 billion 2015 number of employees 17 509 2010 website mtn.com mtn mobile shop in south africa mtn group formerly m cell 1 is a south africa based multinational mobile telecommunications company operating in many african european and asian countries . its head office is in johannesburg . 2 as of 30 september 2015 mtn recorded over 300 million subscribers across its operations . 3 the company sponsored the caf champions league football competition as well as apoel fc winners of the cypriot first division in 2009 2011 2013 2014 and participants in the 2009 10 and 2011 12 uefa champions league . on 18 march 2010 it was announced that mtn signed a sponsorship deal with english football club manchester united f.c. 4 contents 1 coverage 2 business 2.1 talks with bharti airtel and reliance communications 2.2 acquisition of verizon business south africa 2.3 international carrier services 2.4 sale of nigerian stake 2.5 most admired african brand 3 controversy 3.1 iran 3.2 turkcell court case 4 see also 5 references 6 external links coverage edit mtn acquired investcom mainly under the areeba and spacetel brands . 5 as of 1q 2014 6 mtn is active in country subscribers in millions note afghanistan 6.058 formerly investcom benin 3.259 formerly investcom botswana 1.700 operates under the mascom brand cameroon 9.236 republic of congo 1.865 cyprus 0.399 formerly areeba ghana 13.055 formerly areeba guinea 2.885 formerly investcom guinea bissau 0.490 formerly investcom iran 41.783 operates under the mtn irancell brand ivory coast 7.521 liberia 1.355 operates under the lonestar cell brand nigeria 57.224 rwanda 4.001 south africa 24.875 sudan 8.672 formerly investcom south sudan 0.732 see mtn syria formerly investcom swaziland 0.813 syria 5.723 formerly investcom uganda 8.9 7 yemen 5.185 formerly investcom operates under the spacetel brand zambia 4.4 business edit mtn s competitors in south africa includes vodacom cell c virgin mobile and telkom mobile . talks with bharti airtel and reliance communications edit in may 2008 it emerged that bharti airtel an india based telecommunications company was exploring the possibility of buying mtn group . the financial times reported that bharti was considering offering us 19 billion for a 51 % stake in mtn which would be the largest overseas acquisition ever by an indian firm . talks fell through after a few days and bharti airtel pulled out of the proposed deal on 24 may . two days later it was reported that another indian telecommunications company reliance communications was in talks with mtn for a potential combination of their businesses . if realised the estimated worth of the combined entity would have been 70 billion 35 billion with 116 million subscribers worldwide . 8 9 on 18 july the two companies announced that they had mutually decided to end discussions regarding the merger . acquisition of verizon business south africa edit in june 2008 mtn group agreed to purchase verizon business south africa which was a provider of data services to corporate customers in south africa and four other african countries . 10 the acquisition was completed on 28 february 2009 . 11 mtn positioned themselves to provide dsl broadband services in africa particularly south africa through its partnership with leading south african isp afrihost . 12 13 international carrier services edit on 26 june 2009 mtn group participated in belgacom international carrier services bics a subsidiary of belgacom by merging it with its own subsidiary mtn ics . bics will function as official international gateway for all international carrier services of belgacom swisscom and mtn group . these companies respectively hold 57.6 % 22.4 % and 20.0 % of the shares of the company . sale of nigerian stake edit south african holding company shanduka group acquired a minority stake in mtn group s nigeria business for 335 million in november 2012 . 14 most admired african brand edit on 22 october 2015 mtn emerged as the most admired and the most valuable african brand valued at us 4 672m its second award in two years . brand africa announced at the 4th annual brand africa 100 africa s best brands gala event in johannesburg that mtn is the overall best brand on the continent and reclaims the no. 1 spot as the most admired brand in africa . mtn has won a number of brand awards in recent years . these include being named the only african brand in the 2014 brandz top 100 most valuable global brand ranking the only south african company on the world champions list and the most admired and most valuable brand in africa in the 2014 brand africa 100 ranking of the most admired and most valuable brands in sub saharan africa . citation needed controversy edit iran edit mtn has been criticised for its activities in iran s telecommunications sector . mtn has a 49 percent stake in government controlled mtn irancell the second largest mobile phone operator in iran and 21 percent of mtn s subscriber base is from the country . in january 2012 the us based advocacy group united against nuclear iran uani launched a campaign publicly calling for mtn to scale back its operations in iran and end its business in the country . uani alleges that mtn technology is enabling the iranian government to locate and track individual cellphone users which it says is a violation of users human rights . 15 in june 2012 reuters and the bbc reported an allegation by chris kilowan a former executive for the company in iran that mtn group may have been complicit in securing american telecommunications technology from sun microsystems hewlett packard and cisco systems on behalf of irancell in violation of trade sanctions against iran . oracle which owns sun microsystems said that it was investigating and denied involvement saying that it complies with us export laws . hewlett packard issued a similar statement . mtn group denied the allegations saying that it complied with us sanctions against iran . 16 turkcell court case edit turkey s turkcell filed a 4.2 billion lawsuit in washington d.c. in 2012 alleging the company used bribery to win a mobile licence in iran that was first awarded to turkcell . the court delayed the case in october 2012 pending a us supreme court decision on the alien tort statute the us human rights law on which turkcell s suit is based . 17 in may 2013 turkcell dropped its multibillion dollar us lawsuit against mtn group citing a us supreme court ruling that hurt its case . on 27 november 2013 turkcell resued in johannesburg 18 19 see also edit south africa portal companies portal telecommunication portal mobile telephony in africa mtn 5.2 billion fine references edit m cell is now mtn group limited . pr newswire 1 . 11 october 2002 . proquest . web . 11 november 2013 . home . mtn group . retrieved on 15 august 2011 . head office south africa 14th avenue johannesburg 2196 south africa gsma intelligence . gsma intelligence research operator group ranking q2 2014 . gsmaintelligence.com . retrieved 21 march 2015 . goal.com . goal.com . 18 march 2010 . retrieved 22 september 2013 . stewart bailey 2 may 2006 . mtn agrees to buy investcom for 5.5 billion in cash . bloomberg . retrieved 25 november 2014 . quarterly update for the period ended 31 march 2014 pdf . mtn group . 24 april 2014 . p. 4 . retrieved 25 november 2014 . semakula othman 21 june 2016 . mtn appoints new group chief after nigeria fiasco . daily monitor . kampala . retrieved 21 june 2016 . exit bharti enter reliance in mtn tango bloomberg businessweek india s reliance communications plans merger with mtn . the times online . retrieved 22 september 2013 . mtn buys verizon south africa . telegeography . 25 june 2008 . retrieved 22 september 2013 . mtn completes purchase of verizon business press release . mtn.co.za . mtn business and afrihost in ground breaking partnership . itweb.co.za . retrieved 22 september 2013 . company announcement mtn business set to drive innovation into the business world . engineering news . 21 november 2012 . retrieved 22 september 2013 . shanduka group buys stake in mtn nigeria . wall street journal . november 2012 . u.s. lobby group seeks mtn pullout from iran . the wall street journal . 27 january 2012 . retrieved 23 march 2012 . paivar amir . iran mobile operator irancell secures us technology . bbc news . retrieved 6 june 2012 . turkcell withdraws u.s. lawsuit against mtn group . reuters . 1 may 2013 . 1 archived 2 july 2014 at the wayback machine . mtn group limited integrated report year ending 31 december 2013 pdf . mtn.com . retrieved 12 november 2015 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to mtn group . official website v t e south african telecommunication companies licensed landline companies neotel telkom sa mobile phone companies cell c mtn virgin mobile vodacom telkom mobile me & you mobile fnb connect mrp mobile major internet service providers internet solutions mweb vox telecom retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mtn group & oldid 744449316 categories mobile phone companies of south africacompanies established in 1994telecommunications companies of afghanistancompanies of ugandamobile phone companies of yementelecommunications companies of south africacompanies based in johannesburgsouth african brandsmtn groupcompanies listed on the johannesburg stock exchangehidden categories articles with wayback machine linksengvarb from july 2016use dmy dates from july 2016pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced 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