A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (December 2021) |
 | |
| Formerly | France Télécom S.A. |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public (Société Anonyme) |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1 January 1988 (as France Télécom) 1 July 2013 (as Orange) |
| Headquarters | Issy-les-Moulineaux, France |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
| Products | |
| Revenue |  €43.47 billion (2023)[2] |
| €4.80 billion (2023)[2] | |
| €2.62 billion (2023)[2] | |
| Total assets | €109.65 billion (2023)[2] |
| Total equity |  €34.96 billion (2023)[2] |
| Owners | French State (23%) Public float (77%)[3] |
Number of employees | 132,002 (2021)[2] |
| Subsidiaries | |
| ASN | |
| Website | www www |
Orange S.A. (French pronunciation: [ɔʁɑ̃ʒ]), formerly known as France Télécom S.A. (france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications company. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France and 59,000 people worldwide.[4] In 2023, the group had a revenue of €43 billion.[5] The company's head office is located in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the southwestern suburban area of Paris.
Orange has been the company's main brand for mobile, landline, internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since 2006. The Orange brand originated in the United Kingdom in 1994 after Hutchison Whampoa acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications: that company became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and then was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. On 1 July 2013 France Télécom was rebranded to Orange.[6]
History
Nationalised service (1878–1980s)
In 1792, under the French Revolution, the first communication network was developed to enable the rapid transmission of information in a warring and unsafe country. That was the optical telegraphy network of Claude Chappe.[7]
In 1878, after the invention of the electrical telegraph and then the invention of the telephone, the French State created a Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Telephone services were nationalized and added to the ministry in 1889. However, it was not until 1923 that the second 'T' (for 'telephones') appeared and the department of P&T (Posts and Telegraphs) became PTT.
In 1941, a General Direction of Telecommunications was created within this ministry. Then, in 1944, the National Centre of Telecommunications Studies (CNET) was created to develop the telecommunications industry in France.[citation needed]
In the 1970s, France attempted to make up for its delay in developing communications infrastructure, compared to other countries, by launching the programme "Delta LP" (increasing the main lines).[citation needed] It was at that time that the majority of the local loop was built (that is all the cables linking the users to the operator). Moreover, with the help of French manufacturers, digital switching -- Minitel and the GSM standard—were invented by engineers and CNET researchers.
In 1982, Telecom introduced Minitel online ordering for its customers.[8]
Creation of France Télécom (1988–1997)
Until 1988, France Télécom was known as the direction générale des Télécommunications, a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It became autonomous in 1990. This was in response to a European directive, aimed at making competition mandatory in public services from 1 January 1998. The 2 July 1990 Bill changed France Télécom into an operator of public law, with Marcel Roulet the first Chairman. Since then, the company has had a separate body corporate from the State and acquired financial autonomy. It was privatized by Lionel Jospin's Plural Left government starting on 1 January 1998. The French government, both directly and through its holding company ERAP, continues to hold a stake of almost 27% in the company. In addition, The French government's role in naming the CEO.[9] In September 1995, Michel Bon was appointed to run France Télécom Group.[10]
'Roaring Nineties' (1997–2000)
In 1997, the capital of the new public company was successfully floated whereas the dot-com bubble phenomenon made the stock exchanges bullish. A second share offering occurred in 1998. France Télécom got behind in the internationalization launched by its international competitors such as Vodafone, thus, it started looking for targets at the highest speculation rate of the dot-com bubble. Moreover, its alliance with Deutsche Telekom based on a reciprocal capital contribution of 2% broke off when Deutsche Telekom announced that they were planning to do business with Telecom Italia without letting the French know; even if this project ended up failing.
Acquisition of Orange and privatisation
In July 1991, Hutchison Telecom, a UK subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications Ltd, who by then had acquired a licence to develop a mobile network in the United Kingdom.[11][12][13] Hutchison renamed Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd, and on 28 April 1994 the Orange brand was launched in the UK mobile phone market. A holding company structure was adopted in 1995 with the establishment of Orange plc. In April 1996, Orange went public and floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ,[14] majority-owned by Hutchison (48.22%),[15][16] followed by BAe (21.1%).[14] In June 1996, it became the youngest company to enter the FTSE 100, valued at £2.4 billion.
In October 1999, the German conglomerate Mannesmann AG acquired Orange for a price equivalent to €7,900 per customer, i.e. US$33bn.[17][18][19] Mannesmann's acquisition of Orange triggered Vodafone to make a hostile takeover bid for Mannesmann. Shortly thereafter, in February 2000, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann for US$183 billion, and decided to divest Orange because EU regulations would not allow it to hold two mobile licences.[20]
In August 2000, France Télécom bought Orange plc from Vodafone for a total estimated cost of €39.7 bn.[21][22][23] At the time, France Télécom also bought stakes in several other international firms (GlobalOne, Equant, Internet Telecom, Freeserve, EresMas, NTL and Mobilcom), of which some have since been sold back. Through this process, France Télécom became the fourth-biggest global operator. The mobile telephone operations of Orange plc were merged with the majority of the mobile operations of France Télécom, forming the new group Orange S.A.
On 13 February 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange with an initial public offering of 95 Euros per share, with a secondary listing in London.[24] In May 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the CAC 40,[25] the benchmark stock market index of the top 40 French companies in terms of market capitalisation.[26]
In June 2001, the France Telecom Mobile brands Itinéris, OLA, and Mobicarte were replaced by the Orange brand. On 21 November 2003, France Telecom withdrew the 13.7% of Orange's shares traded on the Paris stock exchange.[27]
On 2 October 2002, the CEO, Thierry Breton was given the task of turning the company around after the company became crippled by debt following the drop of the company's stock price. On 30 September 2002, the company's stock price was €6.94, down from €219 on 2 March 2000. France Télécom was the second most indebted company worldwide in terms of short-term liabilities. The company obtained 15bn of debt adjustment that needed to be borne by banks and investors, another 15bn as a capital increase from the French State since it was still the majority shareholder, and an additional 15bn in cash from internal savings. On 25 February 2005, Thierry Breton was appointed Minister of Finance and Industry and Didier Lombard, who had been head of the firm's new technologies division, replaced him as CEO.[28]
NeXT scheme and rebranding to Orange (2006–present)
The NeXT scheme was the recovery plan for France Télécom which aimed at, among other things, reducing costs, especially wage costs, carrying on a converging policy for its products and services, and grouping together all the brands under a single brand, except for the activities dealing with fixed-line telephone which would stay under the designation 'France Télécom'. Consequently, this led to the disappearance of a number of brands.
From 1 June 2006, France Télécom tried to commercialize all its products under a single worldwide brand, becoming the sole brand of the France Telecom group for Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries in which Orange operated. Orange Business Services became the brand for all its business services offerings worldwide, replacing the Equant brand. In June 2007, Orange and Mid Europa Partners acquired Austrian mobile network company One, re-branding it as Orange Austria. In 2012, it was sold to Hutchison 3G and the Orange Austria brand was terminated.[29]
In November 2008, Orange launched five Orange Cinema Series channels. To do so, Orange bought the exclusive rights from Warner Bros.[30] for first runs of all new films, previously held by TPS Star (a subsidiary of the Canal+ Group), as well as all films in its catalogue and rights to the film catalogues of Gaumont, HBO[31] and MGM.[32] Orange also secured exclusive rights to broadcast Saturday evening Ligue 1 football matches from the French Football Federation.[33] Free accused Orange of tied-selling as the Orange channels were only available to its subscribers.[34] In June 2008, the firm abandoned a €27 billion bid for Swedish operator TeliaSonera after the two companies failed to agree terms.[35]
In 2008, Orange was given permission from Apple to sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets.[36] On 8 September 2009, Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. Both T-Mobile and Orange brands were kept due to differences in their targeted markets. T-Mobile remained the budget-conscious offering and Orange the premium one, although there was some overlap as of February 2011.[37]
On 5 April 2009, Orange won an Arbitration Court case against Orascom Telecom, forcing Orascom to transfer its stake in Mobinil to Orange at a price of E£441,658 per Mobinil share.[38] On 28 October 2009, Orange changed the name of its Luxembourgish telecommunication company VOXMobile to Orange.[39] On 5 November 2009, Orange Armenia launched telecommunication services in Armenia.[40] On 11 December 2009, Egypt's regulator approved an offer from a unit of France Telecom (Orange) to buy Mobinil.[41] In 2010, Orange's CEO, Didier Lombard, was replaced by Stéphane Richard.[42] The company was also reorganised internally, most notably with the arrival of former Culture Minister Christine Albanel as head of communications for the group.[43] In mid-April 2010, Orange UK announced that it would outsource the management of its broadband network to BT. This announcement was greeted positively by broadband commentators, who felt that the move was likely to improve Orange's broadband quality and customer services.[44]
On 2 March 2012, Didier Lombard, who remained special advisor to Stéphane Richard, left the company.[45] His departure was shadowed by controversy over his stock options: he was suspected of having stayed with the company longer to wait for the France Telecom share to recover and then exercise his stock option. The share was trading at around €16, whereas his stock options were at €23.[46] On 3 February 2012, Hutchison Whampoa announced that it would buy Orange Austria for US$1.7 billion.[47] The deal closed on 3 January 2013,[48] and the Orange brand was phased out on 19 August 2013, when its operations were merged into 3.[49] In March 2012, France Télécom bought 93.9% of Mobinil, an Egyptian mobile operator, from Naguib Sawiris's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) in an effort to double its revenue in MENA by 2015.[50] On 28 May 2013 at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, shareholders approved changing the name of the group to Orange S.A. This became effective on 1 July 2013.[6] In September 2014, Orange agreed a deal to acquire Spanish firm Jazztel for a fee of around €3.4 billion.[51]
As of October 2018, Orange has teamed up with Google in order to install a transatlantic undersea cable, Dunant, to share data between the United States and France at faster speeds. Planned to begin operation in 2020, the fiber-based cable has a design capacity of 250 terabits per second (Tbit/s) and will span approximately 6600 kilometers in length.[52]
in July 2020, Orange launched a satellite-based home broadband service utilising the Eutelsat Konnect satellite.[53]
The major shareholders of Orange as of 31 December 2015[update] are the state of France through Agence des participations de l'État[54] and Banque publique d'investissement (replacing Fonds stratégique d'investissement) for 23.04%.[55] As of mid-2013, Orange employees owned 4.81%, and the company itself owned 0.58%.[56]
Operations
Mobile
France, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia and Poland: leading mobile telephone business.
Belgium and Luxembourg: ranked 2nd in mobile telephony.
Spain: ranked 3rd in mobile telephony.Orange is the sole brand used in the marketing of the company's mobile offers; the Itineris, Ola and Mobicarte brands have been combined since 2001, and Mobicarte became a special prepaid calling offer. As of 31 December 2010,[update] Orange has 150 million mobile customers worldwide, 17.9% of whom are in France. Orange France is the leading mobile telecommunications operator in France, with a market share of 45.38% as of 2 November 2009.[update][57]
