Altice has made an offer to acquire Bouygues Telecom, France’s third biggest mobile operator.
Promising to "update the market in due course", the parent company said in a statement that it had made the offer through its subsidiary, Numericable SFR.
According to the report in Reuters, the offer was worth around 10 billion euros. Bouygues Telecom will hold a board meeting on Tuesday to debate the offer.
Separately, Numericable SFR commented that it had entered into negotiations with Iliad to resell a "portfolio of assets in the context of this offer". This would mean that Iliad, the fourth largest mobile operator in the country, would take over mobile assets to assuage competition concerns.
Iliad previously made a buy-out for Bouygues Telecom, which was rejected by its owner.
Bouygues Telecom’s share price opened 14.5 percent higher on the news.
SFR and Bouygues are currently France’s second and third biggest mobile operators respectively; this deal would see them leapfrog Orange to become the largest.
A statement by economy minister Emmanuel Macron suggested that the French government was opposed to the deal:
"I repeat that today consolidation is not something to wish for, for the sector. Employment, investment and a better service for consumers are the priorities. A consolidation would have a negative impact on these issues."
Europe’s telecom sector is going through an unprecedented phase of consolidation. In the UK, for example, Three owner Hutchinson Whampoa plans to buy O2.
