AT&T Mulling European Takeover Possibilities

Despite being the first company in the United States to offer the iPhone, AT&T has gradually seen its mammoth market share dwindle over the last few years. Other companies have been able to lay their hands on Apple’s premier smartphone and A&T has taken a bit of a hit in the U.S. market. AT&T appears to be looking into markets outside the United States in order to balance this out, with recent whispers involving taking over a European telecommunications firm Dutch KPN. Apparently, AT&T has also been looking at buying Great Britain’s Everything Everywhere as an alternative.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that rumors of AT&T buying a European counterpart are far more than smoke and mirrors and that a deal could become a reality between AT&T and another company by the end of the year. The newspaper said that top executives at AT&T believe that an opening exists that would allow them to get the company a foothold in the UK, Germany or the Netherlands by the end of 2013. Exactly what company would be willing to join AT&T and would be attractive enough is still somewhat up in the air.


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While some industry analysts believe that the time is right, other analysts, such as Robin Bienenstock, an analyst at Bernstein, said that AT&T has already tried this avenue before with little success. Bienenstock said that AT&T and America Movil had tried to bid together for Telecom Italia in the past, but she saw little chance of AT&T making a successful takeover bid in Europe this year.

If the company does decide to focus on efforts stateside, there are a couple of developments that could put them above its competition. U-Verse is growing in popularity every day and the company’s new Alerts Program could yield some serious revenue for itself and advertisers that use the program in the very near future.