The bankruptcy administrator of former mobilcom chief and founder Gerhard Schmid wants more damages from France TeleCm, which sold its 27.3 percent stake in the company in May, German magazine Focus reported on Saturday.
Bankruptcy administrator Jan Wilhelm wants damages worth 7.2 billion euros ($8.5 billion), higher than a previous 4.25 billion euros, the magazine reported, without quoting sources.
Wilhelm's office in Hamburg could not be reached for comment. Wilhelm announced in December 2004 that he had filed a suit against France Telekom to seek 4.25 billion euros, claiming that the French company had not fulfilled its contractual duties in paying for the build-up of a 3G network for mobilcom.
In a settlement in 2002, France Telecom took on 7 billion euros of mobilcom's debt, mobilcom halted its plans to roll out 3G mobile services, and everyone promised not to sue anybody else.
At the peak of the telecoms bubble in 2000, France Telecom paid 3.74 billion euros for its mobilcom stake to get a foot in the door in Europe's largest economy and take on rival Deutsche Telekom on its home market. It sold the same stake for 265 million euros in May 2005.
But the alliance turned sour two years later after the bubble had burst. Mobilcom shareholders voted earlier this year, against the advice of management, to sue France Telecom for damages over not keeping pledges to bankroll mobilcom's third-generation mobile services.
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