Deutsche Telekom open to T-Mobile sale at $35 a share or higher - Bloomberg
By Marina Lopes
(Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom AG is open to a sale of its T-Mobile US Inc unit, if an offer values the business at $35 (21.09 pounds) a share or more, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Senior managers at Deutsche Telekom, which rejected an offer from Iliad SA for T-Mobile earlier this month, discussed the business' valuation at a strategy meeting on Thursday in Berlin, Bloomberg said, citing a source.
Deutsche Telekom could not immediately be reached for comment. Spokeswomen for T-Mobile and Iliad declined to comment on the report.
T-Mobile US shares were up 1.7 percent at $29.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Earlier this month, Sprint Corp walked away from a $40-per-share bid for T-Mobile after facing staunch opposition from regulators who warned they want to maintain four competitors in the U.S. market.
Deutsche Telekom derives about a third of its sales and a fifth of core profit from the United States, but believes T-Mobile US lacks the critical mass, frequencies and capital to compete with leaders AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc.
T-Mobile has turned around years of subscriber losses through campaigns that have eliminated contracts, restructured pricing plans and sparked price slashing across the industry.
The company added more postpaid subscribers than all of its competitors last quarter.
(additional reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore, and Leila Abboud in Paris; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Paul Simao)
