Iliad Drops T-Mobile Bid, Says New Offer Wasn't "Entertained"

French carrier Iliad has decided that pursuing T-Mobile is no longer worth it. The spurned company has dropped their efforts, citing Deutsche Telekom's refusal to "entertain" their latest offer. T-Mobile fans may be breathing a sigh of relief, but the failed bid doesn't change much. Deutsche Telekom still has T-Mobile on the block, and are quickly cycling through prospective buyers. A profitable, growing carrier, the upstart Iliad might have actually been the best bet for T-Mobile.

The initial offer from Iliad for T-Mobile was quickly dismissed, with T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom noting it was just too low. A renewed offer — this one Iliad is abandoning — was quite a bit better, with Iliad offering to absorb all of Deutsche Telekom's 67% stake in T-Mobile rather than the 56.6% they originally made a play for.

The price-per-share was likely the sticking point, here, as the two sides were quite a bit off. Deutsche Telekom felt T-Mobile was worth upwards of $35/share, while Iliad's offer was closer to $33/share. T-Mobile is currently trading at around $27/share at the time we publish this article.

Iliad noted in their press release (an English version is linked to as the source material) a plan to "accelerate T-Mobile US' transformation" and save $2 billion in costs annually. They didn't lay out how they planned to do that, of course, but it's an interesting notation to a failed transaction.

T-Mobile parent company doesn't seem to have reversed course on their desire to exit the carrier race, and is likely still open to discussions on anyone willing to purchase T-Mobile. After AT&T, Softbank, and Iliad all failed to buy little magenta, it's starting to look like slim pickings.

Source: Iliad