Vodafone Airtouch launches £79bn Mannesmann takeover bid

NEWS Vodafone AirTouch has made a revised offer of E124bn (£79bn) for Mannesmann, the German engineering group turned telecoms player. The all-stock offer represents the largest hostile takeover bid ever, and follows a rebuff from Mannesmann just five days ago when Vodafone put a £65bn price tag on the company (see 'Vodafone prepares £100bn hostile bid for Mannesmann' http://www.silicon.com/a34053 ). The board of Mannesmann is known to be meeting this morning to consider the latest proposition. Chris Gent, CEO of Vodafone AirTouch, said in a statement: "We made a friendly approach to Mannesmann last Sunday. That proposal was rejected and we have now received a letter from [Mannesmann chairman] Dr Esser making it clear he has no interest in a constructive negotiation. "As a result we have decided to make an offer directly to Mannesmann's shareholders." Vodafone said combining the two groups would create the leading mobile international telco with over 42 million customers around the world. Mannesmann runs mobile phone networks in Germany (D2), Italy (Omnitel), France (SFR) and elsewhere. Ironically, the company counts Vodafone as a minority partner in some of its ventures. The company also agreed to buy UK operator Orange a month ago, a move that spurred Vodafone to assert itself in Europe. There has been no talk of who would take on Orange should Vodafone's latest bid succeed (see 'Vodafone Airtouch poised to make Mannesmann bid' http://www.silicon.com/a33870 ). In addition to Vodafone's hostile bid, Mannesmann received another setback yesterday. A UK High Court judge threw out an injunction application from the German company, which claimed Vodafone should not be allowed to use Goldman Sachs as its advisor, because the investment bank has been privy to sensitive Mannesmann information.