France Telecom drops TeliaSonera takeover bid

PARIS (AFP) — France Telecom said Monday it was abandoning its offer to buy Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera, citing a failure to agree on financial conditions.

"Despite favourable interest in the proposal, open dialogue with the board of TeliaSonera failed to come to an agreement on financial parameters" it said in a French-language statement.

It added that the attempt to acquire TeliaSonera was "not indispensible" in the context of its broader corporate strategy.

Earlier this month, France Telecom made a preliminary offer of 33 billion euros (53 billion dollars) for TeliaSonera in a bid to create the world's fourth-biggest mobile operator.

But the ...