News broke yesterday through Bloomberg that Maxis is considering to acquire U Mobile in a bid to expand its presence in Malaysia. However, talks are still at the early stages, and U Mobile has reportedly rejected Maxis’ offer.

This was confirmed by Tan Sri Vincent Tan himself when he was reached out by Bloomberg to comment on Maxis’ buyout offer. “We are rejecting Maxis offer,” said Tan, and he further elaborated that U Mobile will be submitting for an IPO at the end of this month.

Still, since news broke that Maxis is in the early stages of a potential U Mobile buyout, Maxis shares have gone up this morning as reported by Bernama. At the time of writing, the price is sitting at RM3.51 – it was at RM3.47 when trading closed yesterday on 16 July.

Even though U Mobile has reportedly rejected Maxis’ buyout offers, talks are still at the early stages as previously mentioned; only time will tell if the deal will proceed or not. It’s worth noting that U Mobile’s owners are seeking a valuation of more than RM10 billion.