'Financial Times': Vodafone Softens Tone Towards Mannesmann, Offers Larger Stake
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a lot brewing over there in Europe, this morning. Vodafone is making overtures to Mannesmann, and there's a battle for who's going to head the IMF next.</s>DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to get more on those stories from Richard Lambert of the "Financial Times" in London, starting with a question about Vodafone and Mannesmann. Richard, they just won't give up, will they?</s>RICHARD LAMBERT, "FINANCIAL TIMES": No, they're taking this one right to the wire, which is when the Vodafone offer closes early in February, there. What we're seeing now is that Vodafone is making kind of friendlier noises towards Mannesmann and saying they might be prepared to tweak their offer a bit and make management concessions if Mannesmann would just be a little bit nicer to them and stop throwing punches at them. But it doesn't look as though that's going to happen. Vodafone said that it might be prepared to increase its terms a bit. At the moment, I think, Mannesmann stands to get just over 47 percent of the enlarged company, and they may take that up to 49 percent, but Mannesmann says, look, we want well over 50 percent before we sign up for this one, so they're still a long way apart. What's making the difference is that Vodafone's share price has been really strong in the last couple of weeks. It's gone up nearly 30 percent, and that seems to be tilting the deal in Vodafone's way. But it's still got a week or three to run, and I think it's going to go right up to the end, there.</s>DEFTERIOS: Wow, interesting. There was a buy rating on Vodafone, this morning, as well. Moving from a German company, Mannesmann, to the German economy, what did you make of the survey we saw this morning?</s>LAMBERT: Well, that's the IFO-wise man's kind of index of how the German economy is doing, and it looks good. I mean, it looks like the final quarter is clearly going to be strong in Germany. The figures aren't quite as high as some people were hoping for this index, so the euro was weakened a tad after the (OFF-MIKE), but I don't think you should take any notice of that.</s>MARCHINI: Hey, you know, Richard...</s>LAMBERT: The European Central Bank is meeting this morning, but they're not going to raise interest rates today, trust me. They'll (</s>OFF-MIKE) MARCHINI: We trust you, sir.</s>DEFTERIOS: For the record.</s>MARCHINI: Another question for you, maybe a silly one, but I thought the head of the IMF had to be French. I understand Germany's pushing a candidate.</s>LAMBERT: Well, no, he doesn't have to be anything. It's a completely crazy thing. I mean, it's by tradition it's been a European -- it's been a European by tradition. I can't see any reason why it should be a European or a -- it would be a bit difficult for the U.S., but the U.S. runs the World Bank, more or less. I think there would be a good case (OFF-MIKE) somebody from Asia or somewhere outside Europe, but Germany is pushing a candidate very strongly. The only little problem is, everybody in the world, apart from the Germans and certainly including Larry Summers of the Treasury, won't have this guy at any price. So, we could be heading for another of these, you know, dreadful things which we saw at the WTO where they just bicker for ages about who's going to be the boss of this outfit. But Camdessus is leaving in the next few weeks, so they need to come to a decision, quite clearly, but it doesn't look as though they're getting close to one yet.</s>MARCHINI: We're out of time, here, but real quickly, why won't they have him at any price?</s>LAMBERT: Because he's -- his background is wrong. He worked for the World Bank, his in the development, he has no political clout and nobody's ever heard of him.</s>MARCHINI: Well, that's a good -- that's a good reason, wouldn't you say?</s>DEFTERIOS: We can't pronounce his name correctly, that's the other problem here.</s>LAMBERT: (OFF-MIKE)</s>MARCHINI: ... of the "FT," always great to see you. Thanks for coming back.