Oh no, TDC offer hits snag!

TDC, the leading Ductch telecom company hogged much of the business press completely unnecessarily last year as they were the subject of a major buy out by a couple of groups of high profile private equity dudes. Finally at the end of last year it looked like one of the groups, led by Apax, had won and was to buy TDC. Thank God, we could get on with reading about genuinly interesting tech and telecom news again.

But, oh no, today the FT reports that the TDC deal seems to have hit a snag. Their largest shareholder, ATP, has thrown their toys out of the pram and has decided that the canny private equity dudes are being too cute and their (TDC's) management too generous. So, they've stated that the price isn't rich enough and the group should pursue an IPO instead. Oops!

Oh no, please agree folks, the thought of TDC hogging more press for an IPO in 2006 is almost too much. Mind you, to watch Apax etc just do the same in a couple of years could be even more painful for everyone involved. Perhaps a white knight might turn up after all. Shame, Swisscom would have done nicely.