LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Shares in AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE - News) jumped 18.4 percent to trade at $14.00 via agency broker Instinet on Tuesday morning after an auction for the third-largest U.S. mobile phone operator appeared to have been concluded successfully. AT&T Wireless closed in New York on Friday at $11.82. The U.S. stock market was closed on Monday for a public holiday. British-based Vodafone Group Plc (London:VOD.L - News), the world's largest mobile phone group, said on Tuesday it had withdrawn from the auction battle for AT&T Wireless. A source close to the auction told Reuters that Vodafone's bid rival Cingular (NYSE:SBC - News; NYSE:BLS - News), the second-largest U.S. mobile phone company, had won the auction with a $15-per-share, all cash bid that values AT&T Wireless at about $40.7 billion. Shares in Cingular's controlling stakeholders SBC Communications (NYSE:SBC - News) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) were not yet trading on Instinet.
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