France: A new twist in the telco battle for SFR

A new twist has been made in the drawn-out battle for telco SFR between Numericable and Bouygues, as Bouygues is reportedly back in the running for the acquisition.

Late last week it appeared that Altice’s Numericable had won the bidding for SFR, a deal favored by analysts as one less likely to face significant antitrust scrutiny, as Numericable operates in the TV market and SFR operates in the wireless industry.

SFR owned Vivendi had chosen Numericable over Bouygues and had reportedly launched exclusive merger talks.

But Vivendi reportedly announced plans to hold those talks for three weeks, when it would then reconsider whether it should pursue other takeover options.

While Bouygues could potentially be back in the running for the assets, Numericable is looking to close the deal before the merger talk timetable expires, on April 4. The company also said it is not planning on revising its bid for SFR.

Bouygues had previously upped its offer for the assets to $18.14 billion.

Full Content: Wall Street Journal

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