SFR acquisition: MoU signed
June 8, 2026



French telcos Bouygues Telecom, the Free–iliad Group and Orange (the Consortium) have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Altice France (the seller) with a view to acquiring SFR, one of the largest industrial transactions in Europe in the telecommunications sector.

The proposed transaction aims to create long-term value for all stakeholders — customers, employees, partners, suppliers and investors — and for France by supporting the continued development of its infrastructure and digital ecosystem.


This transformational transaction would preserve a highly competitive ecosystem and reinforce the sector’s long-term capacity to invest, innovate and anticipate major technological changes. By enabling each operator to scale up and boost their investment capabilities, this transaction is intended to support the development of more resilient, sovereign and high-performing digital and electronic communications services and infrastructure in France.

The Consortium is paying particular attention to the social implications of this operation. The success of a project of this scale depends first and foremost on the women and men who know the networks, systems, customers and local areas. Migrating millions of subscribers, infrastructure and systems is a multi-year industrial programme. Service continuity for subscribers depends directly on the skills of the SFR teams taken on by the Consortium, which will need their expertise to successfully complete this transformation under the best possible conditions. Furthermore, the Consortium will ensure employment for all the staff of the acquired scope until the beginning of 2029, either by allowing them to continue in their present position or providing them with a job opportunity. All three operators are committed to engaging in constructive dialogue with SFR’s employee representative bodies.

Terms of the MoU

The proposed transaction is based on a price equating to a total enterprise value of €20.35 billion for the Altice France assets under consideration subject to the closing adjustments, which are:

• A potential earn-out payment of up to €0.65 billion;

• A potential downward price adjustment and exit provisions at the Consortium’s or Seller’s initiative (safety clause), depending on SFR’s financial performance up until the closing of the transaction;

• The usual adjustment mechanisms in relation to debt based on the closing accounts;

• Price adjustment mechanisms relating to compliance with the Seller’s commitments up until the closing of the transaction (regulatory and investment commitments).

Break-up fees have also been agreed. They may vary between €0.1 billion and, in case of signing, €2 billion, depending on the initiator of the break-up and the reasons for and timing of the termination of the transaction. These fees would be borne equally by the members of the Consortium, including, under certain circumstances, in the event of termination at the Seller’s initiative.

Furthermore, the Consortium benefits from the customary representations and warranties.

The split of the price between buyers remains unchanged versus the indicative offer of April 17th, namely at around 42 per cent for Bouygues Telecom, 31 per cent for the Free–iliad Group and 27 per cent for Orange. These percentages may vary up to the closing of the transaction depending on changes to customer bases.

The transaction is structured as a share deal with the Consortium acquiring SFR.

On the completion date of the transaction, following the approval of the competent competition authorities, the members of the Consortium will share out the activities between them as follows:

Bouygues Telecom: the SFR Business activity and customer base, part of the SFR B2C activities (5.9 million customers), the Prixtel MVNO (0.5 million customers) as well as SFR’s mobile network in less dense areas (Crozon), the dedicated B2B fixed infrastructure and SFR’s share of the horizontal FTTH network in part of the very dense area known as ‘Faber’;

The Free-iliad Group: all the RED by SFR customer base (6.0 million customers) and part of the SFR B2C activities (1.6 million SFR B2C customers, as well as 0.4 million small business customers under the SFR brand);

Orange: part of SFR’s B2C activities as well as SFR’s Régio, Syma and Coriolis MVNOs (a total of 4.9 million customers);

The frequencies are to be shared out between the three operators;

Those assets (in particular the Fixed and Mobile networks excluding Crozon, part of the store network, and IT systems) not acquired by the three operators would continue to be managed within SFR SA for a transition period of at least 30 months; during which it would be held in equal shares by the three members of the Consortium, in order to ensure continuity of operations throughout the migration and integration phase.

Based on 2025 figures relating to the scope under consideration and post adjustments (the non-recurrent items in particular), the shares of Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange would represent 52 per cent, 27 per cent and 21 per cent of total revenue respectively, and 42 per cent, 33 per cent and 24 per cent of EBITDAaL respectively.

Revenue and EBITDAaL for 2025 relating to the scope under consideration amount to €8.0 billion and €2.6 billion respectively.

The combination of SFR’s assets with those of the operators forming the Consortium is expected to generate significant synergies. Such gains would ultimately benefit consumers and the overall digital ecosystem in France by bolstering the capacity to invest.

A consultation period now opens with the relevant employee representative bodies in order to engage a discussion in a responsible and constructive manner and to ensure a successful outcome for all parties.

The transaction remains subject to the approval of the competent regulatory authorities. Each party will quickly initiate the process with the relevant authorities.

The signing of the definitive legal documents is expected in the second half of 2026 while the completion of the transaction could occur in the second half of 2027, following clearance from the competent authorities, particularly the competition authorities.

At this stage, there is no certainty that this transaction will go ahead.