- Introduction
- A 100-year monopoly
- 21st century: Orange takeover, financial difficulties, and privatization
Orange SA
- Introduction
- A 100-year monopoly
- 21st century: Orange takeover, financial difficulties, and privatization
- formerly:
- France Télécom SA
- Date:
- 1988 - present
- Ticker:
- ORANY
- Share price:
- $11.44 (mkt close, Feb. 20, 2025)
- CEO:
- Ms. Christel Heydemann
- Headquarters:
- Paris
Orange SA (formerly France Télécom) is a Paris-based telecommunications company that held a monopoly in France’s telephony market until 1998.
The company provides fixed-line and wireless voice and data services, cable television, and telecommunications services for businesses. Orange also provides telecommunication and mobile banking services in other countries around the world.
Its name is derived from Orange, which was the dominant mobile service provider in France and a major player in Great Britain when France Télécom purchased it in 2000; the company was rebranded as Orange SA in 2013. As of 2024, the company serves more than 287 million customers.
A 100-year monopoly
As telephone service became available in France in the late 19th century, several private companies operated under a license from the French government. In 1880 these companies were merged into a single network called the Societé Générale du Telephones (SGT). The network (i.e., the entire French telephone industry) was nationalized in 1889 and operated as a government-controlled monopoly until 1988, when the French government established France Télécom as an independent entity.
It retained its monopoly status until January 1, 1998, when new European Union regulations mandated competition in member states’ telecommunications sector. Ahead of the measure, in 1997, the government offered 20% of the company to the public. After additional sales of shares to the public in 2000 and 2001, the French government held just over 50% of France Télécom.
21st century: Orange takeover, financial difficulties, and privatization
In August 2000 France Télécom acquired U.K. telecommunications service provider Orange plc in a deal valued at €39.7 billion ($37.7 billion). Other acquisitions in 2000 and 2001 included:
- GlobalOne, which started out as a joint venture between France Télécom, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.
- Equant, a global data services provider based in the Netherlands.
- Freeserve, which was at the time the largest Internet service provider in the U.K.
- NTL, A U.K.-based cable provider.
After the buying spree, however, France Télécom was left with a debt load of about €70 billion, and by 2002 required an injection of over €9 billion from the French government. After the company’s finances were stabilized, the government continued a gradual reduction in its ownership stake. By 2004, the government no longer held a majority stake, and by the time France Télécom was rebranded as Orange SA in 2013, the French government’s direct stake was about 13.5%.
During the 2010s and early 2020s, Orange focused on growing its telecommunications presence in emerging markets, expanding its business services offerings to include cybersecurity (Orange Cyberdefense), and branching out into financial services through its mobile banking platform Orange Money, which as of 2025 hosts 37 million active users across 17 countries in the Middle East and Africa.
In 2017, Orange entered the retail banking market with the launch of Orange Bank. After expanding throughout France and into neighboring Spain, in 2023 it decided to pull out of the banking market and transfer its customer base to BNP Paribas.