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MILAN, Italy (AP) - Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera cheered on the Inter Milan soccer team as it beat Parma 2-0 one recent Sunday, belying none of the enormity of the news he was about to drop.
The former Telecom Italia chairman had just sent out an urgent summons to key Pirelli & C SpA shareholders, who had a controlling share in the company. He was about to unveil an offer that would sell Telecom Italia to U.S.-based AT&T Inc. and its Mexican affiliate — a deal that would send shockwaves from the markets in Milan to the halls of power in Rome.
Within two weeks, the offer for Europe's fifth-largest telecom was dead, crushed by political worries that a strategic national asset would fall under foreign control. Rome seemed to breathe with relief when a deal sealed this weekend gave control to Spain's Telefonica SA and a group of Italian financial heavyweights.
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