Alex Webb, Columnist

France's Bad Boy of Telecoms Joins the Geriatric Set

Xavier Niel's Iliad joins legacy telecommunications giants in promising more generous dividends instead of stratospheric growth.

November 12, 2019 at 1:57 PM UTC

By Alex Webb

Alex Webb is a correspondent for Bloomberg Quicktake. He previously covered the technology, telecoms and media industries in London, San Francisco and Munich.

Years after beating France’s incumbent telecoms operators, Xavier Niel joins them. — Years after beating France’s incumbent telecoms operators, Xavier Niel joins them.
Photographer: Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Xavier Niel is supposed to be the bad boy of French telecoms. He never finished college, once ran an online sex-chat service, and shook up incumbents like Orange SA with cheap pricing when he launched Free Mobile in 2012.

That makes one element of his push to extend control over Free’s parent Iliad SA particularly surprising: the implicit admission that the Paris-based company is becoming just like any other boring telecom company. It's an overdue acknowledgement of market realities.