Telecoms giant BT is in talks with Telefonica about buying the O2 mobile network from the Spanish firm.
"All discussions are at a highly preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any transaction will occur," said BT.
In 2002, BT spun off O2, then called BT Cellnet. In 2005 it was acquired by Spain's Telefonica for £17.7bn.
BT said it had also been approached by another network about buying its UK arm.
Unconfirmed reports have said these secondary discussions are with UK mobile operator EE.
In late morning UK trade, BT's shares were up by 10.60p, or 2.79%, at 390.60 pence.
In a statement to the Spanish stock market, Telefonica, said: "Telefonica informs that, although it is in talks with British Telecom, these talks are in a highly preliminary phase and there is no certainty that a transaction will take place,"
Last year, Telefonica sold a number of assets in order to reduce debt and improve its credit ratings.
No comments:
Post a Comment