John Legere
John Legere

T-Mobile will not move forward in negotiations with Iliad, the French-based telecom company that has made a $15 billion bid for the wireless carrier.

The WSJ is reporting that the Bellevue, Wash.-based carrier will not make its books available to Iliad, and will be turning down its proposal to buy 56.6 percent of the company, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Similarly, Bloomberg is reporting that T-Mobile is planning to reject the bid because Deutsche Telekom, which owns 67 percent of T-Mobile, does not believe it is not attractive enough. That puts pressure on French telecom company, which was founded by billionaire Xavier Niel, to raise its offer.

In response to an email seeking comment, a T-Mobile spokeswoman referred to a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission last Thursday that confirmed that it had received a proposal from Iliad, but had no further comment.

Reports that T-Mobile plans to reject the offer falls inline with the case that analysts have started to make that T-Mobile has everything to gain by holding off on a merger.

At the minimum, it appears that T-Mobile is willing to delay a decision in hopes of getting a richer offer from Iliad.

Illiad’s bid, which was made publicly on July 31, is inferior to the offer that Sprint is reportedly prepared to make. Sprint, which is controlled by Japan’s SoftBank, is said to be close to offering $40 a share, although the deal would face intense regulatory scrutiny.

After word that it was rejecting the offer, T-Mobile’s shares are trading 55 cents higher to $34.37 a share.

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