Vodafone, Tata given until April 19 to bid for C&W Worldwide

Tata Communications and Vodafone have both been given more time to decide whether they want to bid for British telecoms group Cable & Wireless Worldwide.

Cable & Wireless, currently valued at $1.5 billion, said on Thursday the UK takeover panel had granted its request to give the two firms until April 19 to either announce a firm intention to make a bid or walk away.   

Sources earlier told Reuters that Tata thinks it did not get as much time as Vodafone to evaluate a possible bid, while Vodafone thinks it still has not received enough information to decide on a bid.