Traditionally, when control of Telecom Italia changes hands, it is the public shareholders, with 86 per cent of the equity but no say and no prospect of a takeover premium, who end up looking silly. This time may be different. Pirelli, which controls 18 per cent of TI’s voting shares through shell company Olimpia, has been trying to sell for months but has failed to persuade Italy’s once compliant banks, or Spain’s Telefónica, that Olimpia should command a control premium. Enter the wide-eyed AT&T and América Móvil of Mexico, which propose to pay 30 per cent above TI’s market price for one third of Olimpia each. Pirelli would also be granted an option to sell out completely.

América Móvil’s move looks odd but explicable. The company, controlled by magnate Carlos Slim, is less subject to market discipline and has an overlapping mobile business in Brazil. Telefónica explored a TI deal for this reason and Mr Slim has bought shares in Portugal Telecom to gain sway over its Brazilian exposure. AT&T owns 8 per cent of América Móvil, but its participation makes little intuitive sense. Its constituent parts – the old AT&T, SBC, and Bellsouth – have been selling foreign assets since 2000. AT&T is once again the world’s biggest operator, but this is the third time it has fished in Italy’s murky pond. In the 1980s it owned a quarter of Olivetti, which eventually took over TI. In the 1990s, it signed a global alliance with TI which quickly collapsed.