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Technology Stocks : Vodafone-Airtouch (NYSE: VOD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MrGreenJeans who wrote (2170)	11/24/1999 11:31:00 PM
From: MrGreenJeans	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3175

Vodafone and German rival face US move, says Gent BY CHRIS AYRES CHRIS GENT, chief executive of Vodafone AirTouch, warned Mannesmann yesterday that if his company's proposed œ76 billion takeover of the German engineering and telecoms group did not succeed, they would both be swallowed by US rivals. His comments came as Klaus Esser, Mannesmann's chairman, appeared to tone down his opposition to Vodafone's bid. "Naturally we do not rule out an amicable solution," Herr Esser said. "For that, Vodafone must make a proposal that is acceptable to the shareholders of Mannesmann." Shares in Vodafone rose 6p to 279«p, while Mannesmann's shares rose euro7 (œ4.45) to euro187. But rumours that Mr Gent was close to introducing a small cash element to his Mannesmann bid to gain the support of the company's board were rejected emphatically by senior Vodafone sources. They claimed that Mannesmann's shareholders had so far given a "very good" response to Vodafone's bid. At the same time, Mr Gent spelt out the danger of a US bid for Mannesmann if Vodafone failed. He said: "We will definitely remain [independent] for a good while with good products. But one day US telephone companies will come into the European mobile phone market and swallow us both up." He said that, in the long term, there was room for only four or five mobile phone operators in Europe. "Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and British Telecom will be three of them. Together with Mannesmann we have the chance to sit at the top of the market," he said. Analysts said that if Vodafone's share price fell much further, an opportunistic bid from Bell Atlantic was a possibility. "The problem Bell Atlantic traditionally has is dilution of earnings," one analyst said. "If they bought a big mobile phone company, they would get too much dilution, which is why they lost AirTouch."