Iliad seeks partners to boost bid for T-Mobile

Expecting its $15 billion bid for 56.6% of T-Mobile to be officially rejected by Deutsche Telekom, French telecom company Iliad is seeking partners to help it improve its offer. Those familiar with the plan say that Iliad is hoping that by adding partners, it can raise its bid for T-Mobile above the $33 per share that it offered. The shares are trading above $34 as Wall Street waits for Sprint to officially announce its expected $40 a share acquisition of T-Mobile.

While there had been talk earlier that Deutsche Telekom, the Germany firm that owns 67% of T-Mobile's stock, had already rejected Iliad's bid, there have been conflicting reports on whether this has already happened. Today, the Financial Times reported that Deutsche Telekom will soon make it official and reject the Iliad bid as being too low. Sprint is rumored to have already worked out with T-Mobile, the broad strokes of a deal that values all of T-Mobile at $32 billion.

Iliad, an upstart telecom company, is said to be talking to Dish Network, Cox Communications and Charter Communications, along with a number of pension funds and hedge funds. Dish would be an interesting partner considering that it has already won some spectrum in an auction earlier this year, and Chairman Charles Ergen has been vocal in his desire to own a mobile carrier. Late last year, there was speculation that Dish would go after T-Mobile. We wouldn't be surprised to see Dish either join Iliad's group, or make a separate bid for T-Mobile.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile has rejected demands from Iliad for more financial information from the carrier.

source: Reuters