FTFY.
The article mentioned Zong, but are they really in any position to be buying Ufone?
After all, what will it give them? Very little spectrum and the burden of 22 million additional customers.
Logical choice for me is Telenor (depends on the telenor group's mood), doesn't make sense for Zong or Jazz atm.
Well there are only two potential buyers Telenor and Zong.
Telenor needs extra spectrum badly and by buying Ufone they will not only get spectrum to compete Jazz but also they will become Largest network in the country. So after buying Ufone Telenor can compete in data segment in which they are far behind jazz and zong.
But problem is the money here. Telenor Global seems like in no mood to invest that much amount in Pakistan considering their ARPU. So Telenor will prefer a merger (by shares) with Ufone instead of cash acquisition. Which could be a road blocker deal between both companies.
On the other hand Zong is already way ahead in data segment and badly want to compete with Jazz. They already have enough spectrum, all they need is more customers to become an operator like the level of Jazz (with more than 50 M customers). Zong does not have many Hybrid customers and by buying Ufone they can add lotal Ufone Super Card customers. Since China is on the back of Zong, Money and backdoor approvals by Govt would not be an issue for them (since Govt is 74% share holder in Ufone).
Keeping this in my My vote is for Zong. Because Telenor and Ufone after merger will still be Telenor and Ufone.