(Newser)
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Deutsche Telekom plans to buy a 20% stake in Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE) of Greece, for $3.92 billion. The deal is conditional on the German carrier getting management control, and the company will open talks immediately with the Greek government, the only larger shareholder. The OTE stake will let Europe’s biggest telephone company expand into Eastern Europe, reports the Wall Street Journal.
An OTE mobile subsidiary has operations in Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Romania. Deutsche Telekom will buy the OTE stake from Marfin Investment Group at $41 a share—36% above the March 14 closing price. Bloomberg reports the Greek economy minister called the deal “a welcome development,” though a “number of issues between the Greek government and Deutsche Telekom remain to be resolved.''
