Many things have lost value as the global economy shudders, from real estate portfolios to highly paid investment bankers. As the economy headed downwards, it seemed like few things were really worth what we once thought they were.
Money rushed out of the productive economy and into gold, oil and treasury bills. The economist Brad DeLong spoke of a future where "the only things that have value are bottled water, sewing needles and ammunition".
But mobile phone companies are not one of them. Mr DeLong may as well have added text messages to the list. While investors and bankers withhold their money from almost anything that doesn't come with a government guarantee, cash and confidence continue to pour into the mobile industry.
Just this week, a consortium of investors has agreed to pay something in excess of US$10 billion (Dh36.73bn) to acquire 46 per cent of Zain, the Arab world's second-largest mobile operator.
The same week marked the appearance, subject to regulator approval, of the UK's largest mobile player, through the announced merger of Orange and T-Mobile.
Meanwhile, France's Vivendi said it would spend $2bn buying a Brazilian network.
There are more deals in the pipeline. In the coming months, India's Bharti Group is likely to merge with MTN, Africa's largest operator, in the largest ever transaction of its type between two emerging markets companies. Banking sources say that financial institutions are lining up to take part in the deal.
Essar, another major Indian mobile operator, has entered a partnership with the Dhabi Group, an investment firm owned by members of the Abu Dhabi Royal Family, to invest in the African telecoms market.
And Orascom Telecom, Egypt's largest public company, is on an acquisition drive.
Zain's new owners make an interesting addition to the mix. The leaders of the consortium, India's Vavasi Group and the Malaysian billionaire Syed al Bukhary have little presence in the telecoms sector and were predicted by none, not even Kuwait's famously rumour-prone investment community, to be involved in the deal.
Vavasi tried, unsuccessfully, to acquire a telecoms licence in India, and has since committed to building a multibillion-dollar factory in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The factory is capable of producing the delicate, extremely valuable wafers needed in the production of microchips.
The little-known Vavasi is seeking the partnership of some of India's largest telecoms companies to complete the consortium. The government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is one company that Vavasi hopes to bring to the table.
But bringing companies like BSNL and the state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) into the deal will require patient political negotiations in India. Both government businesses are known for their slow, bureaucratic approach, and elements of the Indian political landscape will object to the sight of local profits being directed into expensive Gulf acquisitions.
The mobile phone has become such a fundamental part of life to so many people that its popularity, and demand for the services of mobile operators, seem practically immune to the effects of an economic downturn. Consumers have shifted their coffee purchases from Starbucks to McDonald's, choose to keep driving their five-year-old cars a little longer, and have put off buying that second rental home. But their mobile bills have hardly changed.
While few mobile users are cutting down on calls, the industry as a whole is seeing its revenues per user drop. This is partly because the mobile continues to penetrate poorer demographic markets, and partly because competition is bringing down prices of core services such as calls and text messages.
In such an environment, it is emerging-market specialists that will thrive, explaining the popularity of Asia, the Middle East and Africa among mobile industry investors. Knowing how to serve more people with lower profit margins is a skill that has been mastered in places like India, Egypt and Nigeria. It will become increasingly important in places like Britain and the US.
That will lead some of the best emerging market operators into the world's most developed economies, analysts insist. "You'll see them exporting their model all over the world and it may well be that you will see a case of the Third World coming into the First World," said Zeljko Ivic, the head of telecommunications and media at the Millennium Finance Corporation, a Dubai-based investment bank, at a telecom investment forum in April.
"Inefficient fat cat operators in the West [will be] getting beaten by toughened emerging-market competitors."
Mobile operators may be the clearest example of an industry that has retained its appeal while the sky appeared to be falling around them. But others have also shown that by becoming a basic, trusted staple of people's lives, a business stands a better chance of survival than by becoming a Wall Street favourite.
tgara@thenational.ae
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
Info
What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship
When: December 27-29, 2018
Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 290hp
Torque: 340Nm
Price: Dh155,800
On sale: now
Dubai World Cup Carnival card:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 | 2,410 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m
England's lowest Test innings
- 45 v Australia in Sydney, January 28, 1887
- 46 v West Indies in Port of Spain, March 25, 1994
- 51 v West Indies in Kingston, February 4, 2009
- 52 v Australia at The Oval, August 14, 1948
- 53 v Australia at Lord's, July 16, 1888
- 58 v New Zealand in Auckland, March 22, 2018
Stage result
1. Pascal Ackermann (GER) Bora-Hansgrohe, in 3:29.09
2. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto-Soudal
3. Rudy Barbier (FRA) Israel Start-Up Nation
4. Dylan Groenewegen (NED) Jumbo-Visma
5. Luka Mezgec (SLO) Mitchelton-Scott
6. Alberto Dainese (ITA) Sunweb
7. Jakub Mareczko (ITA) CCC
8. Max Walscheid (GER) NTT
9. José Rojas (ESP) Movistar
10. Andrea Vendrame (ITA) Ag2r La Mondiale, all at same time
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
Monster
Directed by: Anthony Mandler
Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., John David Washington
3/5
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLA
Price, base / as tested Dh150,900 / Dh173,600
Engine 2.0L inline four-cylinder
Transmission Seven-speed automatic
Power 211hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 1,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
Result:
1. Cecilie Hatteland (NOR) atop Alex - 31.46 seconds
2. Anna Gorbacheva (RUS) atop Curt 13 - 31.82 seconds
3. Georgia Tame (GBR) atop Cash Up - 32.81 seconds
4. Sheikha Latifa bint Ahmed Al Maktoum (UAE) atop Peanuts de Beaufour - 35.85 seconds
5. Miriam Schneider (GER) atop Benur du Romet - 37.53 seconds
6. Annika Sande (NOR) atop For Cash 2 - 31.42 seconds (4 penalties)
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
The view from The National
The Beach Bum
Director: Harmony Korine
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Snoop Dogg
Two stars
Results
1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1hr 32mins 03.897sec
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull-Honda) at 0.745s
3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 37.383s
4. Lando Norris (McLaren) 46.466s
5.Sergio Perez (Red Bull-Honda) 52.047s
6. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 59.090s
7. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) 1:06.004
8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) 1:07.100
9. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri-Honda) 1:25.692
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:26.713,
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
Normal People
Sally Rooney, Faber & Faber
Scoreline
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 17
Jebel Ali Dragons 20
Harlequins Tries: Kinivilliame, Stevenson; Cons: Stevenson 2; Pen: Stevenson
Dragons Tries: Naisau, Fourie; Cons: Love 2; Pens: Love 2