Au Revoir T-Mobile

Yesterday, Illiad announced that it has dropped plans to acquire a controlling stake in T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom AG, The Wall Street Journal reported. This ends the four-month pursuit that would have brought the French telecommunications company into the North American market. Illiad’s first offer for 56.6% of T-Mobile, paying $33 per share, was rejected in July as it didn’t interest executives over at Deutsche Telekom. Illiad’s latest offer values T-Mobile shares at $36 apiece, including cash and part of the future value creation, which still didn’t appeal to Deutsche Telekom execs. T-Mobile has really turned the company around under CEO John Legere, but the company’s growth will plateau without the spectrum and scale that a merger would allow. During last week’s GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Legere made several comments that suggested he wasn’t taking Illiad’s offer seriously. Wireless Week reported, “When talking about Iliad, Legere went so far as to literally call ‘bullsh*t’ on his fiduciary responsibility to shareholders to consider all offers.” We’ll have to wait and see who makes an offer next for Deutsche Telekom to consider.