Telefonica in Talks with KPN; European Markets Positive Across the Board
DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a potential telecoms merger worth more than $100 billion is all the talk this morning in Europe.</s>DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: Todd Benjamin's got that as part of our London update. Hi, Todd.</s>TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Telefonica, the big Spanish telecoms company, which has a big presence in Latin America, they are talking with KPN, the Dutch telecom carrier. Now, if this merger comes off, indeed, it would be big, about $145 billion in market cap, and they, of course, would have reach from Latin America to Europe. And Telefonica shares -- it's the first chance Madrid investors have had a chance to react to the possibility that the two could merge and are in talks -- and those shares are up almost 10 percent this morning. KPN had a big day yesterday, up 9.6 percent, after Telefonica came out with a statement yesterday confirming they were in talks, and they are up almost 3 1/2 percent today, that is for KPN shares. In terms of the overall markets, a good day for the markets, given the gains you had on Wall Street, and, of course, these markets were closed yesterday for a holiday, but they're back in good form today: The FTSE is up about one percent; you've got the Dax in Frankfurt up 1 1/2 percent; Paris is faring even better, 1.8 percent; and Zurich is up just over one percent. So with the exception of the FTSE, all these markets are improving from the last time we spoke, and techs, telecom and media are leading the way. The currency markets are quiet this morning. But oil, oil is up slightly, up 26 cents at $24.15 a barrel; that's Brent, of course, trading here in London. Back to you in New York.</s>MARCHINI: All right, thanks a lot, Todd. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com