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TeliaSonera and its largest shareholder, Swedish government, have rejected France Telecom’s SKR252.5 billion ($42 billion) bid for the mobile operator. France Telecom used the so called unsolicited approach, which includes both cash and stock, and which values TeliaSonera at 56.23 kronor a share, or about 26% higher than the Nordic operator’s valuation in mid-April.
TeliaSonera’s board and the Swedish government, which owns 37% of the company, have rejected the offer, while the Finnish government, a 13.7% shareholder, has yet to comment.
France Telecom’s CEO Didier Lombard said he expected talks to continue despite the initial knock-back and stressed they are not considering a hostile takeover, which when you think about it doesn’t make much sense when your primary shareholder is another government that may also have some other, non-economic interests.
France Telecom’s bid involves buying 52% of TeliaSonera in cash, and 48% in stock, and would be the company’s largest acquisition since it bought Orange in 2000. If the deal goes through, France Telecom would emerge as the largest telecoms group in Europe.
[Via: MarketWatch]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
