Altice and Bouygues have confirmed reports that Numericable-SFR parent company Altice has made an offer to acquire Bouygues Telecom. Altice's statement did not provide further details, while earlier reports said the bid is worth just over EUR 10 billion.
Bouygues confirmed that it received an unsolicited offer from Altice to start negotiations with a view to buying Bouygues Telecom. Bouygues' board of directors will meet 23 June to review Altice's letter. While press reports said that Altice's head, Patrick Drahi, started talking to Bouygues around three weeks ago, Bouygues' statement said that no negotiations are in progress.
Separately, broadband and mobile operator Free's parent company Iliad announced that it has entered into exclusive talks with Numericable-SFR to buy assets related to the takeover offer for Bouygues Telecom. The sale of part of Bouygues and SFR's spectrum and network assets to Free may secure the companies regulatory approval for the takeover, which would reduce the French mobile market to three network operators from four.
A takeover of Bouygues Telecom would make SFR the clear market leader in France, with more customers than Orange. Based on Telecompaper’s Q1 2015 numbers, a merger of SFR and Bouygues would create the market leader with 47 percent of customers, followed by Orange with 39 percent and Free with 15 percent. In terms of revenues, Free would have an even smaller share of the market, as its ARPU is much lower than those of the three other players. Bouygues earlier battled Numericable for the takeover of SFR, only to be beat on price for the company, while last year both Iliad and Orange were reported to be considering takeover bids for Bouygues Telecom.
