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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Bouygues bids for Vivendi's SFR to create telecoms powerhouse, (NYSE: ORAN)

Bouygues on Thursday made an offer for larger telecom rival SFR, which promises a bigger potential payday for seller Vivendi than a competing offer from Numericable but has more regulatory risks.French telecoms and construction group Bouygues has offered Vivendi 10.5 billion euro in cash and 46 percent of the new company after a planned spin off, valuing SFR at 14.5 billion euros before benefits from the deal and 19 billion after these are taken into account.Cable operator Numericable has made a bid that included 11 billion euros ($15.11 billion) in cash, granting Vivendi a 32 percent stake in the new company, sources said earlier.A SFR-Bouygues tie-up would create Europe's seventh biggest telecom group in terms of sales and in France it would rank ahead of current French leader Orange in market share.

Orange SA, formerly France Telecom SA, is a France-based company that is engaged, principally, in the provision of integrated telecommunications services. Shares of ORAN traded higher by 0.88% or $0.11/share to $12.57. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.10 and as high as $14.68. On average, 621190 shares of ORAN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 320553.



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