Bertelsmann, Microsoft mull buying German cable assets

A spokesman for Telekom said a recent roadshow to present the cable network to potential buyers led to quot;an exceedingly pleasing response,quot; though he wouldn8217;t say how many parties want to bid for the network. Telekom said at the start of the year it would split its 17-million-subscriber network into nine regional companies, possibly maintaining a stake in some.

While it has never put an official price on the asset, company officials note US deals are priced at 5,000 marks per connection. This would render a full price of around 30 billion marks.

An unconfirmed report at the start of the week in German weekly Der Spiegel said that Bertelsmann and Microsoft were prepared to offer nine billion marks US4.9 billion to 10 billion marks for the network. The valuation is close to the reported five billion marks to nine billion marks valuation by rival bidder Deutsche Bank AG.