France Telecom would consider taking over the subsea cables business of Alcatel-Lucent, Chief Executive Stephane Richard said on Monday, as the telecoms gear maker seeks to ease its debt burden.Loss-making Alcatel is racing to cut costs and reduce cash burn after being hit by competition from low-cost Chinese rivals and lower spending on network gear by global telecom operators.France Telecom has expressed its interest in principle in Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), though "for the moment it hasn't gone any further", CEO Richard said, adding that France Telecom has been looking for months at how ASN and its FT Marine unit could work better together.Bloomberg later reported that private equity funds Permira and PAI were weighing bids, as was French sovereign wealth fund FSI.
France Telecom SA (France Telecom) is a France-based European mobile operator, Internet access provider, and telecommunications services provider for multinational businesses under the Orange brand. Shares of FTE traded higher by 1.45% or $0.17/share to $11.88. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $10.20 and as high as $15.87. On average, 1206430 shares of FTE exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 816910.
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