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Strong signals of mobile phone bid war
A potential bidding war for mobile phone operator T-Mobile was in prospect yesterday after reports said O2 owner Telefonica was eyeing the business.
The Spanish company's interest in T-Mobile would throw down the gauntlet to mobile phone giant Vodafone, which is also weighing up a possible bid, the Financial Times said.
Telefonica is said to be concerned that O2 would lose its market-leading position in the UK if Vodafone goes ahead with an offer.
Telefonica, which was unavailable for comment, currently has 27 per cent of the UK market through O2.
Vodafone is the second largest player with 25 per cent but this would be bumped up to 40 per cent if it bought T-Mobile, which is the UK's fourth biggest mobile phone operator.
Sources close to Telefonica said that the company had not made a decision about whether to go ahead and preparation was at an early stage.
T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom and valued at around 3bn by analysts. But the German company is said to be looking at a sale after years of under-performance and has appointed JP Morgan as an adviser on options for the business.
n Vodafone has buried the hatchet with Carphone Warehouse yesterday after agreeing to sell its contract mobiles across the chain's outlets.
Vodafone dumped Carphone as a supplier of contract mobiles in favour of an exclusive deal with Phones4U in October 2006, but has returned to the chain in an increasingly tough and competitive UK market.
Carphone Warehouse continued to sell Vodafone's pay-as-you-go phones and upgrades, but customers will now be able to sign up for a full range of contracts and broadband services at its 800-plus stores from Tuesday.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
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Sunny spells
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