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France: SFR acquisition offer drags on

By  |  April 1, 2014

French telco Bouygues is dragging on the battle to acquire phone carrier SFR as it announced this week that it has extended its offer to acquire the company, say reports.

Bouygues is currently competing with Numericable to acquire the Vivendi-owned company. Reports say Vivendi is more likely to sell the company to Numericable as antitrust concerns would be less, considering Bouygues and SFR both operate in the wireless industry.

But Bouygues will not give up the company without a fight. Recent reports say it has offered a break-up fee of $689 million, which would be awarded to Vivendi should competition authorities block the merger. The offer has been extended by two weeks until April 25, reports say.

Last week, Vivendi decided that Altice-owned Numericable would win the acquisition. Both bidders have offered more than $20 billion for the company, say reports.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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