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Mobile Transfer Season Now On ...

(02 Jul 2009, BWCS Staff)

It's the season of inflated buy-outs, in the mobile world as much as in the football world, and now it appears that Vodafone will not be alone in its pursuit of T-Mobile. Earlier in the week, the FT reported that the Newbury-based global wireless giant was poised to mount a take-over of the ailing, German-owned, UK operator, T-Mobile. Not to be outdone by their larger rival, it now appears that Orange-owner, France Telecom, is putting together its own bid to buy T-Mobile, at least according to the FT it is. Meanwhile, the same newspaper is citing "sources close to the matter" as saying that Telefonica, O2's owner, is also weighing up a move for T-Mobile.

For its part, French-backed Orange has distanced itself from any take-over talk. However, it has form in this area and made several offers for the fourth largest UK mobile operator over the past twelve months, each one was politely turned down. Orange has also tried to gate-crash T-Mobile's network-sharing deal with Hutchison-backed, 3, the UK's newest market entrant. Vodafone signed a network-share deal with O2 in March of this year.

The speculation over T-Mobile's future reached fever pitch recently as it emerged that its German parent had enlisted investment bank JP Morgan to help it examine strategic options. Later, it emerged that JP Morgan had approached Vodafone about a sale. At the moment, the mobile giant is reportedly looking over the books before deciding whether or not to make a bid. Vodafone had earlier made an offer to swap its Turkish business with Deutsche Telekom in return for T-Mobile. This would have strengthened the German company's hand in the Mediterranean where it owns a chunk of Greek operator OTE.

Neither of Vodafone's other UK rivals are thought to have looked at the figures from JP Morgan yet. Deutsche Telekom itself has refused to be drawn on the prospect of a sale. In fact, the company pointed out that it has only recently installed a new CEO, Richard Moat, who has barely got his feet under the desk.

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