Iliad emerged as a late rival bidder to Sprint in attempts to acquire the fourth-largest US player, but T-Mobile US’ parent company deemed the $15 billion bid for a 56.6% stake as too low.
Sprint has since pulled out of the running, and Iliad has claimed it is now in talks with private equity funds and companies to team up and make the acquisition.
“To ensure that these discussions go to term, we cannot tell you more about them,” Thomas Reynaud, CFO at Iliad, told reporters.
Reuters reports that he claimed he did not know how long the talks will take, but it is thought that partnering with investors will see Iliad increase the bid.
Sprint’s original offer valued T-Mobile US at $32 billion.
Deutsche Telekom is reported as saying that Iliad’s original offer did not bring enough value to shareholders.
