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Altice France rejects €17 billion takeover bid for SFR from telecom rivals

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Altice France, the owner of SFR, has rejected a €17 billion ($19.8 billion) joint offer from French telecom giants Bouygues Telecom, Iliad’s Free, and Orange. The move dampens investor hopes for long-awaited consolidation in Europe’s competitive telecom market.

In a memo to employees, CEO Arthur Dreyfuss confirmed that the proposal, which valued Altice France at around €21 billion, had been “immediately rejected.” The bid’s rejection came after it boosted shares of major telecom firms, with Bouygues hitting a seven-year high before closing 9% higher, while Orange rose 3%. The CAC 40 index also gained 2%, lifted by speculation of industry consolidation.

Despite the rejection, Bouygues, Orange, and Iliad reaffirmed their commitment to the proposal, saying it would benefit “customers, employees, creditors, and shareholders.” Analysts at J.P. Morgan viewed the offer as stronger than expected, estimating SFR’s standalone value at €16 billion but noting potential synergies could lift it beyond €20 billion.

Finance Minister Roland Lescure said the government would be “extremely vigilant” about the deal’s potential effects on prices and service quality. Any merger would need approval from French or EU regulators, given that France has maintained four major mobile operators since 2012.

SFR, the country’s second-largest telecom provider, currently serves over 19 million mobile and 6.1 million fiber customers. Analysts suggest that if consolidation moves forward, it could influence similar restructurings across other European markets.

Telefonica Eyes M&A to Drive European Telecom Consolidation, CEO Murtra Says

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Telefonica (TEF.MC) is preparing a bold M&A strategy to reshape Europe’s fragmented telecom market, while offloading assets in Latin America to free up capital, CEO and Executive Chairman Marc Murtra told Reuters. His first strategic plan since taking the helm in January envisions building “titanic European operators” to compete globally in telecoms, AI, and digital infrastructure.

Murtra argues that Europe’s market is too fragmented—with 41 operators serving more than 500,000 customers each, compared with just five in the U.S.—and consolidation is needed for competitiveness. Regulators, long wary of higher prices, may now be more open as geopolitical tensions drive Europe to reinforce its strategic autonomy in defense and critical infrastructure.

To fund acquisitions, Telefonica has already agreed to sell its Argentina and Uruguay units, while exploring sales in Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador, which analysts say could free up €3.6 billion ($4.2B). The group has not commented on reports it may raise additional capital.

Potential M&A targets include Vodafone Spain, Germany’s 1&1, assets in Brazil, or Liberty Global’s 50% stake in Virgin Media O2, according to analysts and dealmakers. Meanwhile, French rivals Orange, Bouygues, and Iliad are rumored to be circling Altice’s SFR, signaling a wave of regional consolidation.

Murtra’s vision also involves a “social contract” with regulators: allow consolidation in exchange for commitments to invest in cybersecurity, AI, and data centers. “Imagine a Europe where the satellite systems, the hyperscalers and artificial intelligence are in the hands of tech bros—and this could happen,” Murtra warned.

Telefonica’s shares have rallied since Murtra’s appointment, though its market cap has halved since 2015, and it remains among Europe’s most shorted stocks. Still, analysts see merit in the plan. Moody’s Carlos Winzer noted that scale is “absolutely fundamental” in telecoms, while investment bankers predict country-level consolidation first, followed by cross-border deals.

If Telefonica succeeds, it could trigger a wave of European telecom M&A, pulling in giants like Orange, Deutsche Telekom, and BT, and redefining the continent’s digital infrastructure landscape.

Orange to Harness OpenAI’s Latest AI Models for African Languages

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French telecom giant Orange announced plans to leverage OpenAI’s cutting-edge AI models to advance African language technology. Despite the continent’s rich linguistic diversity—over 2,000 languages—the benefits of AI have largely bypassed African languages due to scarce data and limited computing resources, according to researchers from Cornell University and the journal Nature.

Operating in 18 African countries, Orange signed a deal last year with OpenAI to access pre-release AI models and fine-tune large language models for regional African language translation tasks. The company began deploying OpenAI’s Whisper speech model this year for speech recognition but aims to expand into more sophisticated applications with the latest models.

OpenAI’s open-weight models provide publicly accessible parameters, enabling developers like Orange to customize models for specific needs without needing the original training datasets. Orange plans to fine-tune these models using its own collected samples of African languages and roll them out locally.

Steve Jarrett, Orange’s Chief AI Officer, told Reuters the company intends to provide these fine-tuned models free of charge to local governments and public authorities. He emphasized that the initiative serves as a blueprint for bridging the digital divide through AI, fostering collaboration with local startups and communities to elevate African languages as “first-class citizens” in the AI landscape.