French company drops plans to buy T-Mobile

French telecommunications company Iliad has scrapped its plan to buy T-Mobile, it said on Monday.

Iliad had previously offered to buy a 56 percent stake in the company for $15 billion this summer, and then bumped its offer up in an attempt to control two-thirds of the company.

{mosads}The plan was rejected by Deutsche Telekom, the German telecom giant that owns most of T-Mobile.

T-Mobile’s stock dropped by nearly 3 percent after the news broke on Monday.

In its statement announcing that it was dropping its pursuit, Iliad said that its planned reforms for T-Mobile — the nation’s fourth largest wireless company — would have led to savings of more than $2 billion per year.  

“This transaction would have created significant value for both Iliad’s and T-Mobile U.S.’ shareholders,” the company said.

Deutsche Telekom has long been looking for a T-Mobile buyer.

Sprint was long rumored to be pursuing an acquisition of the company earlier this year, in a merger that would have combined the nation’s No. 3 and No. 4 wireless companies. Opposition from regulators, who have insisted that the market needs four major wireless carriers in order to remain competitive, forced Sprint to drop its bid in August. 

U.S. regulators had blocked AT&T’s $39 billion attempt to buy T-Mobile in 2011.