Deutsche Telekom hopes to find a partner for its IT services unit T-Systems 'as quickly as possible,' board member Lothar Pauly, quoted by an AFP report said.
The AFP report said a newspaper interview quoted Pauly as saying that 'we're not under any time pressure. But a solution should be found as quickly as possible so as not to engender uncertainty for customers and employees.'
'But you won't get any concrete timetable out of me at the moment,' Pauly, quoted by the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, also said.
In particular, Deutsche Telekom is looking for a partner for T-Systems' enterprise services division, which provides IT services to big multi-national companies and public sector clients, the report said.
The business accounts for two thirds of T-Systems' total annual sales of 12.6 billion euros ($17 billion) and its 55,000-strong workforce.
Pauly insisted that a straightforward sale of the business 'is not an option,' but Deutsche Telekom would not insist on maintaining a majority stake, the report also said.
In the past, French groups Atos Origin and CapGemini and US-based EDS have all been mooted as possible partners for T-Systems, the report further said.