Crumbling under a debt exceeding 23 billion euros, Altice is seeking to sell a large part of its activities to avoid asphyxiation, and SFR is faltering. It’s official, Bouygues Telecom, Free (Iliad Group) and Orange, who were in ambush, have filed a non-binding joint offer of 17 billion euros to take over the majority of the operator’s telecoms activities in the red square. An unprecedented alliance between three historical competitors more inclined to fight against each other, and which marks a turning point for the French telecoms market.
Behind this common front is a national stabilization operation. The offer, valuing the whole of Altice France at more than 21 billion euros, covers almost all of SFR’s activities, with the exception of stakes in Intelcia, UltraEdge, XP Fiber, Altice Technical Services and overseas operations. Bouygues, Iliad and Orange would share the scope according to a precise distribution, thus Bouygues Telecom would mainly recover the B2B activities and the mobile network in non-dense areas, while Iliad and Orange would divide the B2C, infrastructures and frequencies. A joint company would ensure transitional management, the time to integrate the assets and ensure the migration of subscribers.
The stated objective is to ensure continuity of service, strengthen the resilience of very high-speed networks and preserve sovereignty over infrastructure deemed critical for the country. This industrial rationalization, supported by Bercy, would also aim to guarantee that Altice’s debt reduction does not result in a loss of strategic control. But the social project promises to be considerable.
According to union estimates, more than 10,000 jobs could be threatened in the short or medium term. The company has already seen its workforce increase from 15,000 to 8,000 employees since 2014, the date of its acquisition by Patrick Drahi. Representative organizations fear an increase in duplication, particularly among technicians, engineers and sales staff. As SFR’s internal structures are close to those of Bouygues and Orange, the partial merger would risk causing massive rationalization. This summer, the unions had also contacted the Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, and the president of Arcep, Laure de La Raudière, to warn of the consequences of a “cut sale”.
Faced with the French offer, other contenders are also ready. Anglo-Saxon investment funds such as KKR, Blackstone and GIP, the French Ardian and InfraVia, but also infrastructure operators such as EuroFiber and Altitude, or even foreign players such as STC (Saudi Arabia) and Etisalat (United Arab Emirates), have expressed their interest. This diversity of profiles shows that it is no longer just an industrial transfer, but a battle for sovereignty around a vital network for the French economy.
If a takeover by the French trio would make it possible to keep control of critical infrastructures, this would be at the cost of a major social shock. Conversely, a sale to a foreign player would offer respite in terms of employment, while opening a sensitive debate on the control of networks and data.
Beyond the SFR case, the entire competitive architecture of French telecoms is at stake. The four-operator model, born from the arrival of Free in 2012, is today showing its limits in a saturated market, where margins are eroding and investments are exploding. The one-off alliance between Bouygues, Iliad and Orange, if it materializes, would mark the end of a decade of price wars in favor of constrained consolidation.
This issue, which some in Bercy are already describing as a “state affair”, is testing the country’s ability to reconcile economic sovereignty, industrial stability and social cohesion. A high-risk equation, where each variable, capital, employment, competition, now seems interdependent. For SFR, the time is no longer for the war of packages but for its survival.
