According to Norwegian website E24 Danish ITC analyst with non-viking name John Strand has prophesied that Telenor will not launch an offer for its Scandinavian rival TeliaSonera. Strand (which in German is the noun for 'beach') said Russian oligarch Mikhail Friedmann has a lot to say in regards to both companies marrying and living happily ever after.

Telenor and TeliaSonera both have stakes in Russian mobile operators and are currently engaged in a kind of power struggle with Russian Alfa Group and its offspring Altima. Telenor owns 33.6% of Vimpelcom, whereas TeliaSonera has a stake of 44% in another Russian operator, namely Megafone. Alfa Group has a stake in Megafone, its subsidiary Altima owns parts of Vimpelcom.

Apparently, TeliaSonera and Telenor would run into difficulties if they were to consolidate their holdings in case they merge.

Telenor has been engaged in various legal battles with Alfa Group since 2005, when it took the company to court in Russia as Alfa Group tried cooking the books. Telenor won the court case, but Alfa Group kicked Telenor's shin, threw a tantrum and said it wouldn't participate in a meeting concerning Ukraine operator Kyivstar. Later on Alfa Group suggested Vimpelcom ought to buy Kyivstar, only to be rebutted by Telenor.

A few months later Telenor thought it'd be a good idea if Vimpelcom were to buy Kyivstar, but this time around Alfa Group was thick headed. The last thing that happened was that Alfa suggested Telenor sell it's stake in Vimpelcom to Alfa group and buy all of Kyivstar, or the other way around. Nothing's really happened since then, except for a lot of swearing and drinking of vodka.

E24 cited another analyst who said that Telenor might go ahead and lance a bid and solve any problems concerning Alfa Group later. One of the greatest problems would also be that a combined company would have to sell assets in various ISPs for the Monopolies and Merger Commissions in Scandinavia to allow consolidation. And so to 24, which is here. X