KPN doesn't rule out hostile takeover bid for mmO2

AFP, February, 2004

FRANKFURT (AFP) — The Dutch telecommunications group KPN said it does not rule out making a possible hostile takeover bid for its British rival mmO2 after friendly takeover talks failed.

"We never exclude a possibility," the Financial Times Deutschland quoted a KPN spokesman as saying in its Monday edition when asked about a possible hostile bid.

KPN said Saturday that amicable takeover talks with the British mobile phone operator failed after mmO2 dismissed the Dutch group's offer as too low.

KPN did not reveal how much it had been bidding for mmO2.

The British firm has a market valuation of nearly 12 billion euros (15 billion dollars) and is active in Britain, Ireland and Germany.

It was mmO2's German activities that KPN had been...