French telecoms trio say deal 'finalisation' for rival SFR delayed by 48 hours
French telecoms trio say deal 'finalisation' for rival SFR delayed by 48 hours June 6 (Reuters) - Bouygues Telecom BOUY.PA, Orange ORAN.PA and Free-iliad said late on Friday that given the progress made in talks with Altice France to buy rival operator SFR, the parties had given themselves another 48 hours to finalise the agreements.
Last month, Altice France extended an exclusivity period for talks with the three suitors until June 5 - moved up from a prior deadline of May 16 - after they raised their offer to €20.35 billion ($23.44 billion) from around €17 billion.
If approved by regulators, the acquisition would rank among the biggest European telecoms deals in recent years.
A break-up of SFR would reduce the number of mobile network operators in France to three from four, setting up a test of antitrust authorities' willingness to allow consolidation in Europe's crowded telecoms market.
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(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
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