Shareholders of telecommunications company Ono are close to agreeing a deal with Britain’s Vodafone which has offered to buy the Spanish group for about 7.2 billion euros (£6.02 billion) including debt, two sources familiar with the matter said. Shareholders in private equity-backed Ono, which sells fixed and mobile phone, TV and internet services, gave the green light to a planned initial public offering (IPO) of the company at a meeting on Thursday, but they were still holding out for a deal with Vodafone, one of the sources said. “The final details of the bid are being negotiated. For now Ono has delayed the presentations linked to the IPO to give breathing room for the negotiations, and a preliminary agreement could even be reached this Friday,” the source said. For Vodafone, a purchase of Ono would be its third European fixed-broadband acquisition in two years as the company seeks to improve its networks and shore up its European businesses after the $130 billion sale of its U.S. arm.
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