(Corrects paragraph 1 to say Bloomberg report was on Wednesday, not Tuesday)
Sept 2 (Reuters) – Elliott Investment Management has built a sizeable stake in Deutsche Telekom and indicated that the company should ditch a potential merger with T-Mobile US, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The activist investor wants the German telecom company to consider other ways to unlock shareholder value, including larger share buybacks, the report added.
The exact size of Elliott’s stake in Deutsche Telekom could not be determined, the report said. T-Mobile, the company’s American arm, declined a Reuters request for comment, while Elliott and Deutsche Telekom did not immediately respond.
Deutsche Telekom holds a nearly 54% stake in T-Mobile — its biggest earnings driver.
In April, Deutsche Telekom was reportedly considering a full combination with T-Mobile US, which could result in the largest public M&A deal on record.
However, Semafor reported in July that T-Mobile’s US executives had told Deutsche Telekom that they no longer support a merger.
(Reporting by Carlos Méndez in Mexico City; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
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