Upstart French Telecom Iliad Bids $15 Billion for a Majority Stake in T-Mobile US
Xavier Niel founded Iliad, a cellphone upstart in France. The company sees a kindred disruptive spirit in T-Mobile US. Credit Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times Top Stories This article and others like it are part of our new subscription. Learn More » Related Links T-Mobile and Sprint Zeroing In on a $32 Billion Merger (June 14, 2014) Iliad news release (in French) Updated, 8:14 p.m. | Sprint and T-Mobile US have been slowly dancing toward a $32 billion merger of the third- and fourth-largest cellphone operators in the United States. Now a French upstart wants to break in on the cozy couple. Iliad, France’s fourth-biggest mobile company, said on Thursday that it had made a $15 billion bid for a majority stake in T-Mobile US, a company that is roughly 60 percent bigger than it in market value. “The U.S. mobile market is large and attractive,” said Iliad, which was founded by Xavier Niel, a billionaire French ...