Business

Sun Jun 29 23:36:18 PDT 2008

PARIS, June 30 (Reuters) – France Telecom said on Monday it had withdrawn its proposal to buy Scandivanian telecoms group TeliaSonera, saying it could not reach an agreement on the financial conditions of its offer.

"Following its proposal for a friendly combination with TeliaSonera announced on 5 June, France Telecom has today decided not to submit a firm offer to TeliaSonera’s shareholders," the French group said in a statement.

"Notwithstanding the interest shown in the project, the dialogue opened with the board of directors of TeliaSonera was unable to reach agreement on its financial conditions," it added.

France Telecom had made an indicative cash-and-share offer worth roughly $40 billion.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Quentin Bryar)

Provided by Reuters

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved