TNT! I'm DYNAMITE!

Do you think UPS is serious? IS TNT trying to pump up their stock? Was Kuehn mis-quoted?

Shares in TNT rose as much as 4.5 percent on Friday after a German newspaper said UPS sees the Dutch mail and logistics company as a possible takeover target.

German newspaper Die Welt in its Friday edition quoted UPS Senior Vice President Kurt Kuehn as saying, "It is a possibility. We are looking at it."

UPS Chief Executive Michael Eskew also told the paper his company considered acquisitions in the mail business and that he did not exclude the possibility of hostile takeovers. But Dow Jones quoted a Bear Stearns as saying UPS said the newspaper took Kuehn's remarks out of context to suggest its interest in TNT.

UPS did not immediately comment.

The Dutch government holds a 10-percent stake in TNT, as well as a golden share, with which it can veto all other shares.

TNT has a leading position in the European express market and is the world's second-biggest contract logistics provider after Britain's Exel, the latter having agreed to a $6.7-billion takeover bid by Deutsche Post. I know, old news...