Deutsche Telekom eyes Sprint

NEWS Deutsche Telekom refused to comment this morning on speculation that it was in talks with Sprint over a possible merger. A spokesman for the Bonn based telco said the company was not commenting on the reports that appeared in the international national press Monday morning. The Financial Times claimed Deutsche Telekom entered into discussions with the US company following opposition last week by US and European regulators to a possible merger of Sprint with MCIWorldcom. Watchdogs said the merger would violate long distance and Internet anti-trust laws. While the German paper Welt am Sonntag carried a report this morning stating the German telco is willing to pay as much as DM240bn (£77bn) - twice the price offered by Worldcom.
However, the Wall Street Journal published on Monday, a letter by the FCC chairman William Kennard criticising any merger between Telekom and Sprint. He claimed such a deal was illegal as US law bans the transfer of FCC licences to companies that are more than 25 per cent owned by a foreign power. The German government still has a majority stake in Deutsche Telekom.