Yesterday Telefónica confirmed that it had not received any indication of interest from AT&T, following local reports suggesting a bid was imminent.
Telefónica shares started to rise on Monday morning after a Spanish newspaper claimed AT&T had prepared an offer in the region of €70 billion for the company.
José Manuel Soria, Spain’s industry minister, told reporters on Monday that he had no knowledge of an offer from AT&T for Telefónica, but confirmed he had met with AT&T’s chairman, Randall Stephenson, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona earlier this year.
“He told me he was interested in Europe, but he did not say even one word about any sort of interest in a takeover of Telefónica,” he said.
