DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, shares of the Amsterdam- based Equant Company are gaining in Europe right now. The company does trade here in New York under the ticker symbol</s>ENT. DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: France Telecom and Global Crossing are reportedly competing to buy Equant. Now, Janet Guyon, of "Fortune" magazine, joins us from London. What does France Telecom have to say about this, Janet?</s>JANET GUYON, LONDON BUREAU CHIEF, "FORTUNE": Well, at the moment, France Telecom isn't commenting, which is typical when there are some merger talks afoot that may have some currency. So, at the moment, nobody is talking about this deal, but it does look like both Global Crossing and France Telecom are interested in buying Equant. You know, that stock price has dropped quite a bit over the last six or seven months, it was at a high at $132 a share at one point. So, by dropping by two-thirds Equant has become a takeover candidate for both of these companies.</s>HAFFENREFFER: What is it that Equant brings to the table here, since nobody is talking about the deal?</s>GUYON: Well, Equant is -- actually runs a data network, it is a 50-year-old data network that is used by the airlines to make reservations and it still does that, but it has expanded into being a data-networking company, providing data-networker services to a lot of corporate customers. So, for France Telecom, it would give them a great network to expand service to their corporate customers. And for Global Crossing, which is building an undersea fiber-optic network and a network in the U.S., it would give them corporate customers that they actually need quite badly to fill up its pipe. So, for each company, it is a slightly different thing.</s>MARCHINI: All right, Janet Guyon, "Fortune" magazine, great to see you again. Thank you.
'Fortune': Equant Shares Rally in Europe on Bid Speculation