A €17bn ($20bn) proposal by Bouygues Telecom, the Free-iliad Group, and Orange to acquire ‘a large part of Altice’s activities’ in France has been rejected. Positioned as a means of enabling further investments in fixed and mobile networks (with an inevitable nod to AI), the proposal has been driven by the need for French billionaire Patrick Drahi (who owns 55% of Altice France) to reduce substantial debts. The B2B assets would have been largely taken over by Bouygues Telecom as is looks to consolidate i ...