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Potential €3.5 billion deal could create 3,000 jobs directly and a further 18,000 indirectly

Amazon, LG and Nvidia also pull out, while government moves to reassure attendees

Firm decides not to take part in Barcelona event "with safety of its employees, partners and customers foremost in mind"

Mobile World Congress 2016 expects 95,000 visitors, 2,000 more than in 2015. 2,100 exhibitors, 160 government delegates and 4,000 journalists from all over the world will also attend the fair, which is considered the most important in the mobile sector. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will feature, for the third year in a row, as one of the congress’ most high-profile speakers and F1 driver Lewis Hamilton will take part in a round table to discuss the implementation of wireless technology in the automotive sector. Giants from the sector, such as Google, Samsung, Sony and LG, will be present at the fair, while Apple will once again be the most notable absentee. The Mobile World Congress will generate a 460 million euros impact on Barcelona and its surroundings and will create 13,000 jobs. Security measures for this year’s edition will be increased due to the terrorist attacks which occurred in Paris in November.

On the second day of the Mobile World Congress, which is the largest event of the mobile industry and is currently being held in Barcelona, the GSMA announced the Global Mobile Award winners in more than 30 categories and Blackberry presented a new phone oriented towards the business sector. If Then This That won the Best Overall Prize in the app category and LG’s G3 and the iPhone 6 shared the Best Smartphone award. In the featured keynotes speech, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales remarked on the importance of minority languages on the internet. In addition, Wales presented his project to provide free access to Wikipedia in developing countries, following Monday's announcements by Google and Facebook to also provide internet access to the entire planet.