in june 2010, bharti led by mittal acquired the african business of zain telecom for $10.7 billion (enterprise value) making it the largest ever acquisition by an indian telecom firm. in 2012, bharti tied up with wal-mart, the us retail giant, to start a number of retail stores across india. in 2014, bharti planned to acquire loop mobile for inr 7 billion, but the deal was called off later. his son kavin bharti mittal is the ceo and founder of hike messenger.