Update: WIND Mobile in talks to acquire Mobilicity’s subscribers, report says

When the $380 million deal between TELUS and Mobilicity (legally known as Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises) was axed back in June, rival carrier WIND Mobile expressed interest in a potential acquisition. Tony Lacavera, WIND Mobile’s Chairman and CEO, stated at the time that they will take “another look at Mobilicity since there could be one less bidder for it.”

Mobilicity was last reported to have over 250,000 subscribers, 150 employees and riddled with losing millions of dollars per day, now reportedly $500 million dollars in debt. A new story by the Financial Post this morning has WIND Mobile scooping up Mobilicity’s now 200,000 subscribers. The finer details of the transaction are still being worked out, but apparently it’s for “little-to-no financial compensation.”

Mobilicity currently operates in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver and the AWS spectrum they purchased back in 2008 would be a separate deal that would potentially reduce its investors debt. WIND Mobile, who’s also seeking a buyer, has over 620,000 subscribers and a monthly ARPU of $27.90.

Update: We’re now hearing additional details from various sources, specifically that the transaction will occur ‘in weeks’ for about $40 million, plus that Mobilicity now has approximately 180,000 subscribers. In addition, since the carriers are not legally entitled to sell their spectrum until 2014, the plan is to sell the spectrum to the highest bidder. If true, then the value per subscriber is about $222.

Update #2: Apparently all this talk about a WIND and Mobilicity subscriber merger is not true. In a report by the Canadian Press, Bill Aziz, Mobilicity’s CRO (chief restructuring officer), stated that the published report about the subscriber deal with Wind Mobile isn’t true. However, our sources still indicate that talks are currently happening.

(Thanks tipsters!)