America Movil offered to buy E-Plus, the German unit of KPN (Koninklijke KPN NV) for USD 9.6 billion. In making the offer, the Mexico-based wireless communications firm owned by billionaire Carlos Slim challenged the USD 11 billion bid made by Spain's Telefonica last month.  America Movil already has a 30% stake in the Netherlands-based telecommunications firm.

Slim's bid for E-Plus is EUR 2.4 per share in cash, which is only a third of the EUR 8 per share he forked out last year when he started acquiring his stake in KPN. America Movil, however, said that their EUR 2.4 per share offer is still 35% higher than the KPN's shares average closing price for the past 30 days. American Movil told Reuters that they had already invited the supervisory and management boards of KPN to a meeting to talk about their offer as soon as possible. For their part, KPN said they had already noted the bid and are now in the process of studying it.