After a last-minute bid threw him into the spotlight earlier this year, Iliad CEO & founder Xavier Niel spent the last 3 months looking for backers in order to increase its bid. As stock prices continued to drop (nearly 25% since July), Iliad had announced they would only pursue an acquisition until mid October – it seems that, despite his reported conversations with major US Tech Giants, Xavier Niel wasn’t able to secure a bid large enough to please T-Mobile (and, more likely, parent-company Deutsche Telekom).
As Bloomberg points out, both Free-owner Iliad & T-Mobile have taken a hit in the stock market since word began to spread; however, Reuters reports that Deutsche Telekom may be hoping to hold out until another U.S. Administration (who is more favorable to a merger with former bidders Sprint or Dish) takes office in 2017; however, waiting out the long means that T-Mobile will have to convince Wall St. that the U.S’s smallest Telecom provider can stand alone as an independent entity.