France’s Iliad drops T-Mobile US bid

French telecom company Iliad SA says it has dropped its bid to buy a majority stake in wireless carrier T-Mobile US.

Iliad, which is smaller than T-Mobile, made a surprise offer of $15 billion for a 57 percent stake in T-Mobile in July. At the time, Sprint Corp. was also interested in buying T-Mobile, but Sprint later dropped its pursuit after concluding it would have been too difficult to convince regulators to approve the deal.

Iliad said Monday that it dropped its bid after Deutsche Telekom, which owns 67 percent of T-Mobile, and board members of T-Mobile, declined to entertain a new offer. It was offering about $36 per share for 67 percent of T-Mobile US, up from $33 per share for a 57 percent stake.

T-Mobile could not immediately be reached for comment.