Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the possibility of keeping its investment in T-Mobile US for at least another year as it fears the sole current suitor for the U.S. firm will fail to come through with a sufficiently attractive offer, three people familiar with the matter said.Iliad, the maverick French tycoon Xavier Niel's low-cost telecoms operator, has set a mid-October deadline to decide whether to improve its bid of $33 a share for 56.6 percent of T-Mobile US, the fourth-biggest cellphone network operator in the United States. And Deutsche Telekom could still be swayed if Iliad can find partners to substantially improve its offer, the sources said.The decision is a crucial one for Europe's third-largest telecoms firm by market value, because the U.S. business, which accounts for about a third of its sales and a fifth of its core profits, has long been a drag on cash flows.An exit would dramatically alter its size and profile at a time of consolidation across the industry as companies seek to bring together fixed and mobile services.
Shares of TMUS traded higher by 1.44% or $0.41/share to $28.90. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $24.90 and as high as $35.50. On average, 4803360 shares of TMUS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 5362216.
Source
