Iliad Says Dropping Bid For T-Mobile

French telecommunications company Iliad SA said Monday it is dropping its bid for T-Mobile US , after it was rejected by majority shareholder Deutsche Telekom and members of the T-Mobile board. Iliad in July made an offer to buy a 56.6% stake in the company which was rejected by the board. It then put in place a consortium with two private-equity firms and some international banks that increased the cash amount and the share of the target company to a 67% stake. The new offer was equal to about $36 per share, compared with the stock's current trading level of about $26. "Iliad had the ambition to accelerate T-Mobile US' transformation, notably by saving more than USD2 billion of cost annually," Iliad said in a statement. T-Mobile shares slumped 3% in afternoon trade, and are down about 20% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained about 3%.