South Africa’s fixed incumbent Telkom called off talks to acquire local mobile operator Cell C after failing to agree on a price.

The breakdown in negotiations comes after months of speculation regarding Telkom’s interests in Cell C, South Africa’s third largest mobile operator. Telkom confirmed the discussions with Cell C just two weeks ago, after first declaring it was in acquisition talks with an unnamed party back in September.

In a statement, the company said “shareholders are now advised that Telkom and [Cell C parent] Oger Telecom have mutually agreed to terminate these discussions”.

Bloomberg reports spokeswoman Jacqui O’Sullivan also issued a comment via email stating: “It has became clear that there is a difference between the parties on the assessment of value of the proposed transaction”.

Telkom was seemingly looking to beef up its relatively small mobile operation, which stood at 2.1 million active connections in July, with the proposed acquisition of Cell C giving it an additional 20 million subscribers.