AT&T plans to enter the Indian Telecom market and has approached BSNL for investment.
What’s important to note here is that BSNL IPO plans are being impacted by the employee union (they went on strike for two days) and government hasn’t reached any conclusion on IPO details (BSNL’s networth works out to Rs. 81,000 crores).
As per the rules, government (which owns BSNL) cannot sell more than 26% of the stake to a foreign partner and if at all the deal goes through, AT&T will have to shell upwards of Rs 16,000 crore for buying 25% stake in the company.
BSNL currently has 50 million subscribers with a market share of 15.57% and is present in 21 circles.
AT&T quit Indian mobile space in 2005, selling its 33% stake in Idea Cellular following merger with Cingular Wireless. It received around $250 million from the stake in Idea, which is now valued at nearly $3.5 billion (source)
AT&T and 4changroup were in love with each other, recently….AT&T pulled down a website from the 4chan.org… followed by DDOSing, verbal abuse and what not … its all there on the net.
I doubt BSNL would part with equity to such a player.
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