Orange Fails to Reach Deal on French Wireless Consolidation

Orange SA said it failed to agree on a deal to help the French telecommunications market consolidate, leaving few options as a price war spreads from wireless to landline subscriptions. French phone stocks declined.

Orange “believes that it cannot pursue this avenue at the present time” as conditions weren’t met, the Paris-based carrier said today, without elaborating. Bouygues SA, the owner of Bouygues Telecom, is preparing for a future with four carriers in France as “now nothing is happening in this area,” Chief Executive Officer Martin Bouygues told a committee of the French National Assembly yesterday.