UK enterprise telco Cable & Wireless Worldwide saw its shares soar 7% last Friday, following revived speculation about an imminent takeover bid by US telco AT&T.
Takeover rumours have surrounded CWW, and counterpart Cable & Wireless Communications,…
UK enterprise telco Cable & Wireless Worldwide saw its shares soar 7% last Friday, following revived speculation about an imminent takeover bid by US telco AT&T.
Takeover rumours have surrounded CWW, and counterpart Cable & Wireless Communications, since well before plans arose of their demerger from C&W in November 2009.
US telco Verizon and even mobile and fixed-line operator Singapore Telecoms have previously been in the frame for CWW, which declined to comment on market speculation.
AT&T CFO Richard Linder was cited last July saying his group had considered international investments, although it had yet to find an appealing one.
Bankers have highlighted AT&T as a logical buyer for CWW, but have always cautioned that the US group is partial to ‘window shopping’.
Rothschild and Gleacher Shacklock financially advised C&W as joint sponsors on its 2009 demerger, with Allen & Overy acting as legal adviser.
Also participating as financial advisors were Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, JPMorgan, Lloyds TSB and RBS participated as financial advisers.
CWW’s shares climbed 4.3p to close at 77.3p last Friday.
CWW and AT&T declined comment.
