BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY MEDIA FOR AFRICA

Talk of AT&T takeover pushes up Vodafone shares

Talk of AT&T takeover pushes up Vodafone shares
Gareth van Zyl
By Gareth van Zyl, Editor, ITWeb Africa
02 Nov 2013

Shares of British telecoms group Vodafone, which has business interests in Africa, rose on Friday amid reports that US mobile operator AT&T could buy the firm.

Apart from having operations in markets such as Europe and Australia, Vodafone has stakes respectively in South Africa and Kenya’s largest mobile operators: Vodacom and Safaricom.

AT&T, meanwhile, is the second largest mobile provider in the US after Verizon Wireless.

Intense competition from Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile in the US is resulting in AT&T potentially looking elsewhere for growth.

Reuters says AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson has said there is a "huge opportunity" to invest in mobile broadband in Europe.

AT&T has also reportedly considered options including Vodafone and Britain's largest mobile carrier EE, a joint venture of Orange and Deutsche Telekom, according to Reuters.

Shares in Vodafone were up around 2.9% to 231 pence, the biggest gainers on London’s FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks.

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