Slim sets sights on Colombia Telecom

Buoyed by his recent near USD1 billion purchase of two telecoms operators – in Peru (TIM Peru) and Chile (Smartcom), Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim has now set his sights on acquiring Colombia’s largest network operator Telecom. According to a spokesman for Slim’s majority owned Mexican operator Telmex, the fixed line phone company is in talks with Colombia Telecom over possibly buying a stake and taking over its operation and/or administration. Telmex was Slim’s cash cow until liberalisation brought competition to the fixed line market and tough economic conditions forced the company to freeze prices. Telecom had 2.2 million fixed lines in service at the end of 2004.