News In Brief

By Robert Kilborn, Judy Nichols, and Stephanie Cook

July 12, 2000

The latest in a string of published reports citing acquisition prospects for Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG pinpointed VoiceStream Wireless Corp. The Financial Times of London said Telekom had offered to buy the Bellevue, Wash.-based company for about $30 billion. The Wall Street Journal also reported the possibility of a merger. VoiceStream is the largest US cellphone group that uses a technology similar to the European global system for mobile communications, or GSM, standard. A Telekom spokesman would not comment on the newspaper accounts but reaffirmed the company's interest in breaking into the US market. Previous reports have said Telekom was interested in Sprint Corp., Qwest Communications International, or Britain's Cable & Wireless.