Vodafone embroiled in Turkish politics

THE MURKY state of Turkey's politics appear to have claimed another victim in the shape of Vodafone. The company is being sued in New York's Supreme court over its Telsim acquisition.

The law suit has been brought by Cem Uzan, the son of Kemal Uzan. The Uzan family was in charge of around 200 companies which the Turkish government seized and confiscated back in 2004.

Among those companies was Telsim, Turkey's second largest mobile operator after the state owned Turkcell. Vodafone acquired Telsim in an auction for $4.55 billion (around £2.5 billion) in December 2005.

Cem Uzan is claiming the mobile network operator was worth far more money than that and that his family was stitched up by the Turkish government over the price Vodafone paid.

Which is interesting really since, at the time, the INQ quoted market watcher, Ovum, as saying that Vodafone had probably paid over the odds for Telsim.

Both Nokia and Motorola were owed loads of money by Telsim for their GSM gear. When the INQ visited Turkey, it was Motorola's first GSM infrastructure sale in Europe.

According to the Mail on Sunday, Vodafone reckons the court case has no merit. It'll be hard for Cem Uzan to give evidence given the newspaper's claim that Cem Uzan is currently wanted by Interpol. And the UK, actually.

The Uzan family maintains the real reason the Turkish government had it in for their business empire was that Cem just also happened to be head of a successful right wing youth party. µ

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