AT&T Wireless Price Rises
Shares of
Vodafone
(VOD) - Get Report
weakened in Europe Monday as details of the bidding war for
AT&T Wireless
(AWE)
circulated.
According to reports Monday, both Vodafone and Cingular, the joint venture of
SBC
(SBC)
and
BellSouth
(BLS)
, have offered roughly $35 billion for AT&T Wireless, the No. 3 U.S. wireless operator.
Two other reputed suitors,
NTT DoCoMo
of Japan and
Nextel
(NXTL)
, declined to make competing bids.
Vodafone, which had already lost about 7% of its market value since the bidding began, slipped another 5% in London Monday morning as concerns grew about the proposed deal's price. The $35 billion offers come out to roughly $13 a share, implying a near doubling for AT&T Wireless' shares since as recently as mid-November, before the company formally put itself up for sale via the current auction.
Both Vodafone and Cingular were weighing bids in the neighborhood of $38 billion, according to
The Wall Street Journal
. AT&T Wireless has given itself a two-week deadline to consider the competing bids.