According to The Sun newspaper, BT is set to offer 55 pence a share for DiData, valuing the company at 848.1m pounds ($1.7bn). The speculation caused DiData’s shares to jump more than 3% to just over 49 pence in trading on the London stock exchange.
Despite trading in London, DiData is actually headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company doubled net profit in its most recent fiscal year, to $57.1m, on revenue that increased by 15.9% to $3.1bn. However, DiData has been struggling in Europe, with operating profit in the region falling to only $1.5m in the year to the end of September 2006, down from $14.8m in the previous fiscal year.
BT is not the first telecoms company to be linked with a move for DiData. Back in 2006, South African incumbent Telkom was rumored to be lining up a bid, but no formal approach was made and Telkom instead turned its attention to IT services provider Business Connexion.
