It's supply of Patrick Drahi, its owner, to take control of the subsidiary of the Bouygues group. The negotiation continues. A board of directors must decide Tuesday
Patrick Drahi renewed the assault of Bouygues Telecom. According to several sources, the owner of SFR presented there ten days a takeover offer from a subsidiary of the Bouygues group. A new offensive, which this time could be right. Because the new tycoon puts on the table a little more than 10 billion euros. A very high amount, 25% more than the 8 billion estimated by the markets. Patrick Drahi proposes to pay in cash, with a new loan from BNP Paribas. It would take over all of Bouygues Telecom and its 11 million mobile customers.
To avoid obstacles on competition, Patrick Drahi found, after difficult negotiations, an agreement with his rival Xavier Niel, who will take over part of frequencies, antennas and Bouygues shops. In 2014, Free had already offered to buy the network for € 1.8 billion. SFR must also respect until 2017 an obligation to maintain employment, which would be impossible to keep up with Bouygues as duplicates are important. Thus Orange, whose CEO, Stéphane Richard, grows continually consolidation of the French market, entered the game. The incumbent would take several hundred employees of Bouygues Telecom to ensure social guarantees, advance a blank check from the government. The 30,000 retirements will manage Orange 2020 will allow it to absorb the new workforce. In return, he could ask to recover subscribers such as, for example, Virgin Mobile. Betting unlikely to raise the stakes to an unimaginable level. More than 7.5 billion Patrick Drahi had proposed earlier this year. Nearly double the $ 6 billion that Free had offered last year. Revenge, while relatives and bankers have, each time, pushed to sell. A lesson given to the establishment of business that mocks the last two years, explaining "not understand the psychology of Martin Bouygues'.