Telefónica may accept BT shares in sale of O2

Telefónica chairman César Alierta reportedly flew to London on Thursday as BT nears a decision over whether to pick up the Spanish company's mobile firm O2 or instead opt for Orange and Deutsche Telekom's EE.

Both O2 and EE's owners were apparently willing to accept BT shares as part of the payment for the mobile businesses in a deal that could be announced as early as Friday, according to various sources cited on Thursday night by Reuters.

The acceptance of stock was reportedly a new development in order to make both deals more attractive to the British telecom as Telefónica's Alierta flew to London to lobby his deal.

BT will make its final choice within days, Reuters said.

“You can reasonably expect an announcement to be made by early next week, maybe as soon as this Friday,” the news agency cited a source as saying.

Furthermore, rumours circulated that once BT has made its choice, Hutchison's 3 Group may pen a deal to pick up the leftover mobile company.