Insiders have known since the turn of the year that AT&T Corp had blown very cold on the idea of taking a stake in Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, as has been reported here several times, but it was only yesterday that AT&T and Quadral SA went public with the news that their joint bid was off. As reported, they quit the talks because the French government refused to open up the telecommunications market before its scheduled deregulation in 1988. This prerequisite, essential for the implementation of the strategy proposed by AT&T and Quadral, is not compatible with the timetable set by the authorities for the privatisation of Bull, the two said. Other companies reported to have put in bids for 10% or more – 10% is expected to cost about $120m – include NEC Corp, Motorola Inc, Sequent Computer Systems Inc, IPC Corp Ltd, a consortium led by Dassault Electronique SA, and IBM Corp, but only NEC, Sequent and IPC have confirmed, and there may be others.
