A continental buyer may have been found for the festering 51% stake in Mitel Corp held by British Telecommunications Plc: CommunicationsWeek International believes that the Bosch Telecom GmbH subsidiary of German automotive components giant Robert Bosch GmbH is about to buy the stake. The stake in the Kannata, Ontario PABX manufacturer was bought by British Telecom in 1986 when it was interested in supplying terminal equipment – it put the stake up for sale earlier this year after a complete change of strategy. Mitel would fit well into Bosch’s international expansion strategy. It already has a 95% interest in French PABX manufacturer Jeumont-Schneider Telecommunications SA and earlier this year it aquired 51% in the Canadian cellular phone supplier NovAtel Communications Ltd. Bosch is said to be inter ested in Mitel’s US installed base of small analogue and digital PABXs. With annual sales of $365m, Mitel lost $3.4m in its fiscal third quar ter; it’s weak in the German market.
