Acquisition of SFR: Patrick Drahi steps up his threat of a break-up sale
While discussions over the sale of the telecom operator to the Orange–Bouygues Telecom–Free trio remain deadlocked, the billionaire is turning up the pressure by moving ahead with the sale of several subsidiaries.
Everyone is still sticking to their positions. Nearly three months after Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free jointly offered, in mid-October 2025, to buy Patrick Drahi’s telecom operator SFR for €17 billion—an offer deemed insufficient by the billionaire and immediately rejected—talks between the parties remain at an impasse. But Altice France, the parent company of the red-square operator, does not intend to sit idle: since the trio refuses to revise its initial offer, Mr. Drahi is now threatening to accelerate his plan for an asset-by-asset sale.
In recent months, France’s second-largest telecom operator has received several bids for Netco, its fiber network in major cities, as well as for SFR Business, its corporate services division. According to our information, Altice plans to select bidders during the first quarter of 2026, with a view to possible disposals. As for Netco, Mr. Drahi has received a total of four offers valuing the asset between €4.5 billion and €5.8 billion. For SFR Business, Altice has received five bids: one from operator Altitude Infra valuing the subsidiary at €1.2 billion, and four others valuing it between €1.85 billion and €2.3 billion.
This is enough to put pressure on Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Free, which had included these two assets in their offer to acquire SFR. If Mr. Drahi were to agree to their sale, the three operators would mechanically be forced to revise the scope of their bid. This would seriously slow their ambition to absorb SFR, especially as they have already struggled to agree among themselves on how to divide up their common rival’s activities. In their proposal, Martin Bouygues’s operator is, in particular, supposed to take over the bulk of SFR Business. Asked for comment, Altice declined.
Such a move would merely be “posturing,” according to a source close to the buyers, who believes Mr. Drahi favors an outright sale of SFR. Other observers argue that by opting for a break-up sale, the Franco-Israeli billionaire could end up holding several assets that are difficult to sell.
XpFibre also up for sale
While the three buyers have not lost their appetite for SFR—whose disappearance, synonymous with reduced competition, would boost their profits—negotiations “cannot go on indefinitely,” warned Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, on December 29 on Euronews. Moreover, even if the parties were to reach an agreement, they would still have to wait a long time to obtain—if at all—the green light from competition authorities. “Even if a case were submitted very quickly, it seems very unlikely that it could be concluded before the end of 2026,” said Benoît Cœuré, president of the French Competition Authority, on Friday January 9 in Les Echos.
In parallel, in 2026 Altice France plans to accelerate the sale of its crown jewel, XpFibre. For nearly two years, Patrick Drahi has received expressions of interest for this subsidiary, which provides fiber-optic connections to more than 7 million homes and businesses in rural areas and on the outskirts of major cities. This sale would, however, have no impact on a potential sale of SFR to competitors, since XpFibre is not included in the scope of their offer.
Among the interested parties, the names of investment funds KKR, Ardian and GIP regularly come up. XpFibre is highly sought after because fiber optics, which are now replacing the old ADSL network in France, have become the reference technology for Internet access and are expected to remain so for decades to come.
Under the agreement on the restructuring of Altice France’s debt, finalized on October 1, 2025, its valuation could stand between €9 billion and €10 billion. Altice is not the sole shareholder of XpFibre, however, as infrastructure funds from France’s Axa, Germany’s Allianz and Canada’s Omers own 49.99% of the capital.
Altice France’s management intends to use part of the proceeds to reduce the company’s debt. While this has already fallen from €24 billion to €15.5 billion, Mr. Drahi still aims to bring it down to what he considers a more manageable level of €13 billion. To reach this goal, the businessman recently sold Intelcia, the Moroccan call-center giant, as well as Infracos, his telecom tower subsidiary, which he owned jointly with Bouygues Telecom.