French telecoms firm Orange has hired investment banks Lazard and Credit Suisse to assess a potential purchase of rival Bouygues Telecom, a deal that could top 6 billion euros ($8.2 billion), two people close to the situation said.Market leader Orange has not yet made a firm decision to go ahead with a bid for No.3 operator Bouygues Telecom and discussions that began roughly six weeks ago could still end without a deal, said one of the people.Orange was encouraged by preliminary talks with Europe's antitrust watchdog last month that a deal would be possible with acceptable conditions, said a third person briefed on the situation but not directly involved.However, Orange plans to wait for the watchdog's ruling on Spanish telecoms firm Telefonica's acquisition of KPN's E-Plus in Germany, to have a clearer picture of what it might have to do to ease regulators' concerns about a reduction in competition. The ruling is expected by July 10.
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 fell by 0.68% or $-0.1101/share to $16.17. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $9.10 and as high as $17.23. On average, 689375 shares of ORAN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 116266.
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