Rumor mill: AT&T could move to acquire C&W Worldwide

AT&T (NYSE: T) is hungry to expand its international presence and a new rumor has emerged that Cable & Wireless Worldwide, which was spun out of its parent in March, could help it achieve that goal.

According to Bloomberg, AT&T's CFO Richard Lindner said they are looking at making international investments, but has not seen anything that's attracted them enough to make a deal.

Analysts believe that Cable & Wireless would provide AT&T with its own European network infrastructure. "There is some strategic rationale to a bid from AT&T," said Nick Brown, an Execution Noble analyst in London. "AT&T has a lot of transatlantic traffic for which it needs a bridgehead in Europe, rather than leasing lines and network infrastructure."

Despite typical erosion of its traditional wireline voice revenue, strong growth in IP VPN revenues drove up business Q2 IP data revenues by 9.1 percent. The service provider also continued to see growth in international Ethernet services, holding its number four spot on Vertical System Group's global Business Ethernet services Leaderboard.  

However compelling any deal could be for AT&T or Cable & Wireless Worldwide, neither service provider would comment.

For more:
- Bloomberg has this article

Related articles:
Cable & Wireless to put demerger back on table
AT&T's Q2: IPTV, business services save the wireline day
Cable & Wireless puts Move on IPTV