1:55 PM -- Telia Company clearly believes that gaining outright ownership of its majority-owned businesses in the Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania is key to its international strategy, and it's ready to shell out nearly $696 million to buy the stakes in AS Eesti Telekom and TEO LT AB it doesn't already own.

The Scandinavian giant currently owns 60.12 percent of Estonian fixed and mobile operator Eesti, and is offering $476 million to buy up the rest.

In Lithuania, TeliaSonera owns 60 percent of TEO, which provides fixed voice and data services, including IPTV, to residential and business users. It's ready to shell out $220.6 million to land the 40 percent chunk it doesn't already own.

In investor documents, TeliaSonera stated that both operators would benefit from "enhanced access to TeliaSonera’s know-how and innovative solutions which will enable them to develop and provide new services to customers at lower cost."

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading