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The government is involved in the SFR file
Poorly known, the owner of Numericable faced a barrage of criticism.
These benefit another potential buyer SFR, Bouygues.
"It's been twenty years since we deale with Martin Bouygues, because it has the construction, a TV channel, etc.., But Patrick Drahi, it has never seen. "Within the executive, the revelation of the proposed acquisition by SFR Numericable, there is a week, created a sort of floating. But who is this Franco-Israeli entrepreneur who wants to pay the second French telecom operator, a subsidiary of Vivendi? This Polytechnique, who patiently consolidated cable in France, but has also built an international group (Israel, Belgium, Portugal, etc..) Has never been the seat of government departments. And yet, the parent company of Numericable, Altice, listed in Amsterdam since January, is 14 billion euros ...
Patrick Drahi met only recently Fleur Pellerin and Arnaud Montebourg and the deputy secretary general of the Elysee. He is about to tour again to reassure the government. Telecom is a regulated sector, better get the consent of the Executive before committing. And it is also not quite a coincidence that all operators in the country are 100% French.
Battle of the influence began. Martin Bouygues - which, according to the "JDD", was received last week by François Hollande - is determined to bar the way to the newcomer. He is preparing a rival bid that Numericable (the memorandum of understanding between the latter and Vivendi is still not signed) and by playing its networks to destabilize Patrick Drahi. His arguments? "He mounted a cascade of holdings , it is not French tax resident and where he went, there was a lot of social damage, "says Will we in ministry. The acquisition of France Telecom Cable in 2005 and Noos in 2006, has left hundreds of employees on the floor. There is no question of "make a trial of intent" to the contractor, but the government wants to know "if Patrick Drahi keeps its commitments."
Risks for employment
Moreover, some in the executive, worried as much a hypothetical Bouygues, SFR (between 8,000 and 9,000 jobs respectively), which would increase the number of mobile operators from April to March. Married two operators with comparable profiles is already not an obvious operation in terms of competition. In addition, this is the risk of deleting a lot of jobs, as explained Alain Bernard, national secretary of the federation FO union and Bouygues Telecom: "With SFR, we have two control centers, two computer systems, same jobs, the same directions and almost the same numbers. Whereas with Numericable, we can have duplicates, but they are not quite the same jobs. "
Then the government should seek assurances to potential buyers. It might require that there be no redundancies, but only voluntary departures and a reclassification plan. It will also require that the new entity to invest in fiber as the Cape of 100% high flow in 2022 was appointed by the president. "Numericable, which has a considerable stock of cable, will perhaps seek to the flow through SFR, rather than deploying new networks, "suspect a ministerial adviser. Charges which have outraged concerned. "We have the best fiber network in Europe. Numericable only planned 9 million made fiber 2017 with SFR, we would spend 12 million, "a source close to promises Altice.
So far, the government's focus is to see more clearly. "Nobody can rely on our support, we are assured in a department. But we do not see the urgency to sign an agreement that fifteen days could have important consequences in terms of regulation. "This comment echoes the claims of Orange, who believes that a large integrated with a mobile network cable operator should be forced to rent its infrastructure at regulated rates. The war will not thank you.