Cable & Wireless Plc is in talks that could lead to it buying the 19.9% of US Sprint Communications Co still held by GTE Corp, according to the Financial Times. It had been assumed that United Telecommunications Inc, the Kansas City, Missouri company that now has 80.1% would buy out its sleeping partner to take total control – United has the right to buy the stake for book value, put at $500m to $540m, from the beginning of next year, but GTE can sell the stake to the highest bidder in the interim – if United agrees. The Deutsche Bundespost Telekom reportedly took a look but walked away. Other phone companies said to be interested in the stake are said to include British Telecommunications Plc, France Telecom and BCE Inc’s Bell Canada. Cable & Wireless has to be best placed to buy the stake if the US parties are complaisant, because US Sprint holds the US end of the London company’s PTAT-1 transatlantic cable, having been brought in late in the day as Cable’s partner when Nynex Corp was forbidden by US regulators from taking the 50% on offer. US Sprint – a combination of GTE’s Sprint unit with United’s long-distance arm is the third largest US long distance carrier, very close behind MCI Communications Corp.
