Shares in media group Vivendi Universal jumped as much as 4 per cent on today after a weekly French financial magazine reported that mobile phone giant Vodafone had made an offer for it.
Financial magazine Investirclaimed Vodafone approached the French government a month ago with the offer, valuing Vivendi at €27 per share, because it wanted its backing for tax credits estimated at €2 billion euros that Vivendi is negotiating for.
A Vivendi spokesman and the finance ministry declined to comment.
Shares in the group gained 2.49 per cent to trade at €21.39 by 11.50 GMT, outpacing a slightly subdued benchmark CAC-40 index, though traders urged caution over the takeover speculation.
"All this speculation must be taken cautiously, but it (the Investir report) is the kind of article to increase speculative interest on the stock," a Paris-based trader said.
Vodafone has long sought to buy out Vivendi from their SFR mobile phone joint venture, but last week Chief Operating Officer Julian Horn-Smith said that any bid for Vivendi itself was "very, very unlikely; highly improbable".