By Tarmo Virki
PARIS (Reuters) - Europe's largest IT services firm Capgemini (CAPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday smaller Nordic rival TietoEnator (TIE1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(TIEN.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would be too big for the company to buy.
Private equity firm Nordic Capital has launched a hostile bid for TietoEnator -- whose customers include Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) -- valuing the firm at 1.08 billion euros.
TietoEnator has long been seen as a takeover target, and the firm has said it was in talks with other industry players and private equity firms over the future of the firm.
"That would be too difficult for us. It's too big for us in the Nordics," Capgemini's Chief Executive Paul Hermelin told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris.
"We don't have a team in Nordics to manage such a challenge."
TietoEnator had 16,351 staff at the end of March, with the strongest presence in Finland and Sweden.
People close to the negotiations told Reuters last week that Blackstone (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Telenor (TEL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and EDB Business Partner (EDBASA.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) were in talks with TietoEnator about a white-knight bid.
That three-way consortium is considering a plan to buy TietoEnator and merge it with EDB, though the structure of the bid has yet to be decided, the sources said.
(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)
(Reporting by Tarmo Virki, editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
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