Updated

A month after Carlos Slim's America Movil said it planned to launch a 7.2 billion euro ($9.5 billion) takeover bid for the 70 percent of Royal KPN NV it doesn't already own, KPN's boards have broken a long silence to say the two companies are in talks.

In a somewhat ambivalent press statement, KPN's boards said they considered the Mexican billionaire's bid "unsolicited," but stopped short of calling it hostile. Meanwhile, they said, the companies are in "constant and constructive" talks.

The Netherlands' shareholders rights organization VEB has openly criticized KPN's CEO Eelco Blok for leaving investors in the dark for more than a month as to what he thinks of the 2.40 euro per share bid, which is nearly 50 percent above where KPN shares were trading in July.