une 5 (Bloomberg) -- France Telecom SA offered 252.5 billion kronor ($41.9 billion) to buy Sweden's TeliaSonera AB and create the world's fourth-biggest telephone company. The cash and stock offer values TeliaSonera at 56.23 kronor a share, France Telecom said in a statement today. The price is 26 percent higher than TeliaSonera's price on April 15, the day before France Telecom's interest became public. TeliaSonera's board won't back the bid because it's ``far below'' the company's value, Chairman Tom von Weymarn said in an interview. Buying TeliaSonera would be Paris-based France Telecom's biggest deal since it bought Orange Plc for 27.8 billion pounds ($55.1 billion) in 2000. France Telecom's shares have fallen 13 percent since its interest in TeliaSonera became known, on concern it would issue new stock to pay for the purchase. ``The bid is a little on the low side,'' said Per Colleen, head of Swedish equities at DnB Nor Asset Management in Stockholm, which manages the equivalent of $5.8 billion. France Telecom Chief Executive Officer Didier Lombard previously said the company was seeking growth in emerging markets including Vietnam and Ghana, where mobile-phone use is growing faster than in the operator's main markets of France and the U.K. The company has said it would stick to debt-ratio targets and its cash dividend policy. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aB1TD6ETlfSo&refer=home Credit Crunch ? Ha, ha, ha...