On Monday, Telefonica stated that it had not received any expressed interest from AT&T. This was after a Spanish newspaper report came out that the government had halted a US$93 billion deal from the US firm.

A representative from AT&T told the government about its plans to purchase Telefonica. The said plan also included taking over the company's debt. The announcement led the state to stop the sale as reported by the newspaper, El Mundo on Monday. It cited sources that said to be familiar with the deal.

A spokesman for Telefonica told Reuters that it has not received any spoken or written interest from AT&T.

This year, AT&T has been looking at various ways that it can grow outside the United States. This includes acquisitions and expanding business serving enterprise customers.

With a market capitalization of almost Eur300 billion, a takeover for Telefonica by AT&T would make it the largest telecoms firm in the world according to El Mundo.