Comment (7)Iliad has abandoned its bid to buy T-Mobile US, the French upstart announced Monday.
Iliad, a competitive operator in France, ditched its efforts to merge with the "un-carrier" after a second bid was rejected, it revealed in a statement issued on Monday after the French financial markets had closed. (See Iliad Ends Pursuit of T-Mobile US.)
It noted:
- The Iliad Group announces that it puts an end to its project of acquiring T-Mobile US, following exchanges with Deutsche Telekom and selected board members of T-Mobile US who have refused to entertain its new offer.
Iliad (Euronext: ILD) says it had improved the terms of its deal "significantly," but still got rejected, leaving it with no option but to abandon its efforts with a typically Gallic shrug. (See Eurobites: Iliad Wants Larger Stake in T-Mob.)
Iliad first put in a long-shot $15 billion bid for T-Mobile US Inc. at the end of July, but that was swiftly rejected. (See Iliad Offers $15B for a Stake in T-Mobile and T-Mobile Rejects Initial Iliad Bid – WSJ.)
The operator said it worked with "a consortium" of "two leading private equity funds and Tier-1 international banks" to sweeten its offer, but the response from T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) remained the same.
That doesn't mean we've heard the end of M&A chatter around T-Mobile this year. Dish Network LLC (Nasdaq: DISH) is still said to be sniffing around the operator. (See Eurobites: Dish Dials DT Over T-Mobile Bid.)
— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading
