BT, which has been in active talks with both O2 and Everything Everywhere (EE) for a possible takeover, is likely to announce the result of the talks believed to have concluded over the weekend.
BT wants to acquire either O2 or EE as a part of its strategy to make its presence felt in television, broadband, fixed line phone services as well as mobile. According to reports, the acquisition talks have concluded over the weekend and results could be announced as early as today.
The rumours, if true, would mean that the month-long talks between BT and O2’s Spanish owner Telefonica and EE’s owners, Orange and Deutsche Telekom, have finally concluded. There were reports that Telefonica Chairman arrived in London last week to hold talks with BT.
With BT mulling over the risk aspect of the deal, there has been a word that both the mobile companies have shown their willingness to accept accept shares as part of a deal in a bid to reduce the cash bill. With current valuations, EE is likely to set BT back by around £11bn and if BT decides to go for O2, it will have to shell out anywhere between £9bn and £9.5bn.
BT shareholders have already welcomed company’s decision of acquiring one of the operators given that BT will be able to scale up its operation and compete in all four fronts – broadband, home phone, TV and mobile.
Vodafone, Sky and Virgin have revealed that they will be actively opposing the deal and will appeal against BT’s acquisition bid.
