Mobile operator O2 has denied any knowledge of a reported €20bn takeover bid for the company, concocted by Deutsche Telekom and Dutch operator, KPN.

An O2 spokesman told us: "We are not in talks, and we haven't been approached."

The bid was nixed this weekend, according to a Sunday Times report, after KPN and Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent company, failed to come to an agreement over the structure of the offer.

The paper says that the deal, which would have valued the company at around £13bn, or 160p per share, it could yet be revived, quoting "sources familiar with the talks".

Rumours about a proposed bid for the operator have been "circulating for months", the O2 spokesman told us. "There has been speculation ever since we were spun out of BT," he said. ®

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