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USA's AT&T Eyes Potential European Acquisitions
Published on:
USA based AT&T is reportedly eyeing up potential acquisitions in Europe as it is constrained by growth in its home markets and European telcos are discounted by their own home market economic troubles.
Citing people familiar with the internal discussions, the Wall Street Journal said that a deal could come by the end of this year - which indicates that the firm is not in any hurry to buy up firms on price alone.
AT&T's top executives are debating whether a move abroad would make sense, but some believe an opening now exists to snap up a major mobile network in either Germany and the Netherlands, or in the UK.
Potential targets include KPN which operates in both Germany and the Netherlands, or apparently UK based EE, which is jointly owned by France Telecom and T-Mobile.
The company certainly has the financial muscle to afford a deal as it had attempted the US$39 billion merger with T-Mobile USA before that was blocked by regulators. It also generated US$11 billion in profit in the first nine months of last year.
The move would also be a reversal of the situation in 2004 when Europe's Vodafone eyed a $20 billion bid to buy the troubled stand-alone AT&T Wireless. The company was later purchased by Cingular Wireless for $41 billion and was later rebranded under the AT&T name.
On the web: Wall Street Journal
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