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Salt Mobile Rebuffed Liberty Prior to Sunrise Deal, FT Says

Salt Mobile Rebuffed Liberty Prior to Sunrise Deal, FT Reports

Salt Mobile resisted a takeover approach from Liberty Global Plc in order not to breach an exclusivity agreement with rival Sunrise Communications AG, the Financial Times reported, citing a legal filing.

Salt, in the application filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, said Sunrise’s deal to sell to Liberty Global had caused it “significant harm and billions worth of Swiss francs of damages,” according to the newspaper.

Sunrise disagrees with Salt’s view, spokeswoman Therese Wenger said in an emailed statement. The deal is proceeding as planned and is expected to close by year end, Wenger said. Liberty Global didn’t immediately return phone calls made outside of office hours.

Earlier this month, billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global agreed to buy Sunrise Communications in a deal that values the Swiss phone carrier at about 5 billion Swiss francs ($5.5 billion).

Salt said the sale appears to be in breach of an exclusive bilateral agreement between Salt and Sunrise to build a fiber optic network to compete with Swisscom and UPC, Liberty Global’s cable company in Switzerland, the report said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.