Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) will not make a bid on Global Village Telecom (GVT), a Brazil-based service provider owned by French media and telecom conglomerate Vivendi.
In a Reuters report published Friday, Marco Patuano, Telecom Italia's CEO during a business conference in Italy, said, "We do not have any dossier on the table at the moment."
Speculation over Vivendi selling GVT, which it purchased in late 2009, come to light amidst reports in August that it hired investment-banking units of Rothschild and Deutsche Bank to examine options for GVT and the sudden resignation of Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy.
What drove Vivendi to put GVT on the auction block was that its stock declined 29 percent since January last year as rumors emerged that it could sell off various divisions or divvy up the business.
In addition to the rumors about the fate of GVT, Vivendi named Jean-Yves Charlier as the senior executive vice president of its telecom operations.
For more:
- Reuters has this article
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