PCCW says Cable & Wireless rebuffed takeover offer
ITworld.com 2/7/03
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau
Hong Kong's largest telecommunication company, PCCW Ltd., approached Cable & Wireless PLC in late December regarding a takeover of the London-based company but was rejected last week, it said Friday.
PCCW sent a letter dated Dec. 31, 2002, to Richard Lapthorne, chairman of Cable & Wireless (C&W), expressing the company's interest in entering into discussions regarding a possible takeover of C&W, it said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The offer was rebuffed by C&W in a letter dated Jan. 27 and no takeover offer was made, it said.
The statement added that PCCW is not engaged in discussions with C&W regarding a potential offer or any other deal and has not made any decision regarding a deal with C&W although the possibility of a deal has not been ruled out. It also said it does not currently have any intention to seek to purchase PCCW shares held by C&W.
C&W currently owns around 15 percent of PCCW as a result of the latter company's roughly US$30 billion purchase in 2001 of Cable & Wireless HKT Ltd. At the time, the deal was seen as strategically significant for PCCW's ambitions to become a major regional Internet and media company. But the bursting of the Internet bubble deflated PCCW's plans for a global network of media outlets that fell somewhere between traditional television and an Internet Web site.
Friday's statement, which was submitted in the name of Company Secretary Fiona Nott, was filed a day after a much briefer statement was submitted to the exchange. The Thursday statement was in response to an article in London's Financial Times newspaper that said C&W had rejected a £2.4 billion (US$3.93 billion) takeover offer from PCCW. It denied that an offer had been made but did not disclose that PCCW had approached C&W with the possibility of making an offer.
Martyn Williams is a correspondent for the IDG News Service.
PCCW says Cable & Wireless rebuffed takeover offer
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ITworld.com 2/7/03
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau
Hong Kong's largest telecommunication company, PCCW Ltd., approached Cable & Wireless PLC in late December regarding a takeover of the London-based company but was rejected last week, it said Friday.
PCCW sent a letter dated Dec. 31, 2002, to Richard Lapthorne, chairman of Cable & Wireless (C&W), expressing the company's interest in entering into discussions regarding a possible takeover of C&W, it said in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The offer was rebuffed by C&W in a letter dated Jan. 27 and no takeover offer was made, it said.
The statement added that PCCW is not engaged in discussions with C&W regarding a potential offer or any other deal and has not made any decision regarding a deal with C&W although the possibility of a deal has not been ruled out. It also said it does not currently have any intention to seek to purchase PCCW shares held by C&W.
C&W currently owns around 15 percent of PCCW as a result of the latter company's roughly US$30 billion purchase in 2001 of Cable & Wireless HKT Ltd. At the time, the deal was seen as strategically significant for PCCW's ambitions to become a major regional Internet and media company. But the bursting of the Internet bubble deflated PCCW's plans for a global network of media outlets that fell somewhere between traditional television and an Internet Web site.
Friday's statement, which was submitted in the name of Company Secretary Fiona Nott, was filed a day after a much briefer statement was submitted to the exchange. The Thursday statement was in response to an article in London's Financial Times newspaper that said C&W had rejected a £2.4 billion (US$3.93 billion) takeover offer from PCCW. It denied that an offer had been made but did not disclose that PCCW had approached C&W with the possibility of making an offer.
Martyn Williams is a correspondent for the IDG News Service. |
