Deutsche Telekom Wants Shares of French Mobile Service Provider

[Berlin, GERMANY] According to a report by the Financial Times
Deutschland, Deutsche Telekom wants shares in the third-largest mobile
service operator in France, Bouygues Telecom.

With reference to internal
sources, the paper reported that the two companies were last in negotiations
about this in December. Similar talks have also taken place with the largest
Japanese operator, NTT DoCoMo, as well as with the Dutch firm KPN.

The multinational building company Bouygues is the mobile communication
firm’s largest shareholder and is looking for a partner for the bidding
on the French UMTS licenses. Deutsche Telekom cannot take part in the
procedure starting at the end of the month because it has not found a
partner.

At the end of last year, talks failed between Bouygues Telecom and
Telecom Italia about an increase in shares for the Italian firm. The
holding company BDT owns the majority of Bouygues Telecom with 55
percent. Bouygues has 59.5 percent of BDT, J-C Decaux has 20.9 percent,
and Telecom Italia has 19.6 percent. Bouygues directly holds an
additional 21 percent of the mobile service company; 17.5 percent
belongs to the German energy firm E.ON, and 6.5 percent belongs to the
French banking group BNP Paribas.