Bidders closing in on AOL — but not at any price 

Bidders closing in on AOL — but not at any price

which is part of Time Warner. has appointed Citigroup to review the strategic options for the group. It is understood potential bidders have until tomorrow to indicate the seriousness of their interest.
One executive involved in weighing up an offer for AOL said: 'There's very little information in the document (provided by Citigroup). It's hard to value the business.'
Last year BSkyB. which is 38% owned by News Corporation. ultimate owner of The Sunday Times. the telecoms company. in preparation for its imminent launch of a broadband internet service. Acquiring AOL would give the satellite broadcaster a larger customer base from which to recoup its investment in network infrastructure.
BT would also be keen to add AOL customers to its existing total of 2.6m broadband users. The telecoms group is already the wholesale provider for most of AOL's 1.3m broadband customers.
Some analysts believe that BT could afford to pay '100m more than other bidders because of the savings it could make by combining call centres and from other benefits of scale.
Carphone Warehouse. O2 and Google are all unlikely to bid for AOL. Carphone Warehouse is concentrating on its own recently launched 'free' broadband service. which has already attracted 340. the mobile-phone group recently taken over by Telefonica. is constrained by the Spanish company's commitment not to make any large acquisitions before the end of next year.
Doughty Hanson is expected to take control of other group businesses. including Dextra Solutions. a distributor of phone accessories. repair specialist MPRC and Cornerstone Resourcing.




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