PARIS-France Telecom Group said it will sell all of its shares in Deutsche Telekom next year, valued at about $2 billion.
Jean-Louis Vinciguerra, France Telecom’s executive vice president of finance, said France Telecom would sell its shares and that cooperation between the two companies to form a global partnership was dead.
The partnership was dealt a serious blow after the German carrier pursued an ill-fated attempt to merge with Telecom Italia in May.
The two companies and Sprint Corp. have a telecommunications venture called Global One. France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom also own interests in Sprint, and some analysts have speculated either one of the foreign companies could be interested in acquiring Sprint.
France Telecom said it would use proceeds from the Deutsche Telekom sale to buy other assets. France Telecom has reached an agreement with U.K. cable operator NTL to make an initial equity investment of $1 billion in NTL.
The purchase will include $250 million in common stock at $92.50 per share, and $750 million in 5-percent preferred stock, convertible into common stock at $125 per share. Upon conversion, this investment will represent approximately 10 percent of NTL’s then outstanding common stock, said France Telecom.