Vodafone eyes late bid for CWW a Tata pull out

Mobile phone giant Vodafone has until 5pm today to make an offer for Cable & Wireless Worldwide after India’s Tata last night pulled out of the race for the telecoms firm.

Tata’s communications business said it was unable to agree a price with CWW, which sells telecoms and internet services to major UK businesses, and no longer intended to make an offer.

CWW, which has seen its share price more than double since the start of the year amid takeover speculation, said it was still in talks with Vodafone.

CWW provides high-speed telecoms services to the police and companies including Tesco and would be attractive to Vodafone as the mobile phone firm looks to grow its corporate arm at a time of slow consumer growth.

The interest in CWW was spurred by a collapse in its share price since it split from Cable & Wireless’s telecoms arm in 2010.