Numericable, which is about to complete the acquisition of SFR, France's second biggest mobile network operator, is also open to buying SFR's smaller rival Bouygues Telecom, the chief executive of Numericable's owner said on Thursday. "We see ourselves as the natural buyer (of Bouygues). We have a huge revenue base so there would be big synergy potential," said Dexter Goei, chief executive of Altice , at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecoms Conference in Barcelona.A price war sparked by low-cost telecoms firm Iliad's arrival in the mobile market in January 2012 has resulted in open talk of consolidation, with Bouygues Telecom the centre of attention after losing out to Numericable in the bidding to acquire SFR from Vivendi.A takeover of Bouygues Telecom would be another bold move for Altice, the holding company of Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, since it already carries high debt and would have to sell off chunks of Bouygues to get a takeover past the regulators.It is also still digesting the SFR-Numericable merger, which is expected to close next Thursday and has just bid to purchase the Portuguese business of Portugal Telecom from Brazil's Oi which it says is worth 7.025 billion euros.
Morgan Stanley is a global financial services company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides its products and services to a range of clients and customers, including corporations, governments, financial institutions and individuals. Shares of MS fell by 0.76% or $-0.27/share to $35.21. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $28.31 and as high as $36.44. On average, 9982050 shares of MS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3357531.
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