Asia-Pacific telco Pacnet has offered Telecom New Zealand US$420 million for its Australian subsidiary AAPT, according to Reuters.
Citing sources, Reuters reported this morning that Pacnet wanted to buy the telco, Australia's third-largest, to round out its broader Asia network as it examined the possibility for an initial public offering in the near future.
In 2006 Telecom New Zealand conducted a strategic review of AAPT, which included the option to sell the business, however it decided to keep the subsidiary, instead bulking up its operation with the acquisition of smaller Australian telco Powertel.
When contacted on the matter, Both Telecom New Zealand and AAPT told ZDNet.com.au that they did not comment on speculation.
"We're fully committed to the business," a spokesperson for Telecom New Zealand added.
More to follow.
This is the same company which cut 22 jobs in Australia this month and whose Australian Management said, when they were caught out, that the job cuts were to "save a few dollars in hard economic times" and then they put out a huge bid like this the month after ...... who are they kidding ?
This is most likely hype as they get no connectivity savings buying into AAPT to drive down costs as have no cables coming to Australia (they buy from Telstra etc) and no real depth of Telcom experience in their management ranks to run this sort of operation.
The only possible way they would save money in buying AAPT would be to fire the overlapping staff with PacNet and outsource everything else to Malaysia.