PARIS, Sep. 28, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) has agreed to sell its Orange internet and mobile phone activities in the Netherlands to Deutsche Telekom for 1.33 bln eur, the company said.
The company said the proceeds will be payable in cash upon closing of the transaction.
The transaction was approved by France Telecom's board after getting a green light from the Orange Netherlands workers' council.
France Telecom said it the deal could close as early as 1 October as all necessary authorisations, in particular European Commission approval, have been obtained.
Not really, that's been on the cards a long time, sure I heard about it close to the start of the year. I believe over there Orange don't have as big a market share compared to the UK and France so it's more like they're selling off an under performing part of the business.
In comparison I don't believe so, this is talking about Orange as a whole and not focusing on broadband.
An article on the register gave some more details on it. Orange were the 5th largest I think it was, focusing on mobile mainly. There's apparently only 17 million customers to play for so it's a pretty small market where they only have a small share. Easy to see why management would consider selling off that section to gain some money and focus on the larger markets.
I would suggest that the number of people that have received inducements to stay, together with the recent "BOGOF"-style laptop offers, indicates that all is not rosy in the Orange camp.
The current marketing impetus for Broadband and Mobiles is also indicative of a "panic attack".....keep the goalposts moving and Orange will stay in the public's eye. Remember, we're not even into the pre-Christmas campaigns yet.
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