Iliad SA

Last updated
Iliad SA
Company type Public
Euronext Paris:  ILD
ISIN FR0004035913  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Industry Telecommunications
Founded1991;34 years ago (1991)
Founder Xavier Niel
Headquarters
Paris
,
France
Area served
Key people
Products Telephony
RevenueIncrease2.svg €9.24 billion (2023)
Decrease2.svg €318 million (2023)
Owner Xavier Niel
Number of employees
15100 (2021)
Subsidiaries
Website www.iliad.fr

Iliad SA , stylized as iliad, is a French telecommunications company. It is based in Paris and its operations comprise fixed and mobile telephony services, prepaid phone cards and Internet access providing and hosting services.

Contents

The company was founded by Xavier Niel in 1990. [1]

Iliad is the 5th largest European telecommunications group with 50 million subscribers through its subsidiaries in France, Italy, and Poland. [2]

History

Free Mobile, a subsidiary of Iliad, was launched in 2012. As of December 2013, it was France's fourth largest mobile operator, having gained a 12% share of the market. [3]

On August 1, 2014, Iliad publicly announced a bid to acquire a 56% stake in the United States wireless carrier T-Mobile for US$16 billion. The bid came amidst reports that competing carrier Sprint Corporation, owned by Japanese firm Softbank, was planning its own US$24 billion merger. [4] [5] [6] The bid was dropped in October 2014. [7]

As of the end of 2012, the company was active in over 35 countries.

In 2019, Iliad made 5.33 billion revenue. [8]

Iliad Italia, an Italian subsidiary of Iliad, was launched in Milan, Lombardy on May 29, 2018. [9] [10]

In May 2019, Iliad and Salt sold a majority of their telecommunications towers in France, Italy, and Switzerland to Cellnex Telecom for €2.7 billion — €2 billion for Iliad (covering 70% of its towers) and €700 million for Salt (90% of its towers). [11] The deal included approximately 5,700 towers in France and 2,200 in Italy. [12]

In September 2020, Iliad acquired Play, the largest mobile operator in Poland, for US$4.2 billion. [13]

In July 2021, Xavier Niel, founder of Iliad, announced the acquisition of the remaining 29% of the company he did not already own, in a US$3.7 billion deal. [14]

In September 2021, Iliad acquired UPC Poland, a subsidiary of Liberty Global, for €1.5 billion. [15]

In early 2024, the Iliad Group surpassed the milestone of 50 million subscribers across its networks in France, Italy, and Poland, marking its emergence as the fifth-largest telecom operator in Europe. [16] That same year, the company also achieved its long-standing €10 billion annual revenue target, reflecting steady market gains and effective expansion into each regional segment. [17]

Subsidiaries

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Iliad SA". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Résultats : Iliad franchit le seuil des 10 milliards d'euros de chiffre d'affaires". ZD Net (in French). March 25, 2025.
  3. ↑ Morris, Anne (21 March 2014). "Inside the fight for the future of France's mobile market: What happens when SFR is finally sold?". ZDNet. Vive la tech. Retrieved 30 Jul 2019. Vivendi's owner has just entered exclusive talks that could see France's second largest telco sold to Altice.
  4. ↑ "Sprint Said to Plan T-Mobile Bid as Banks Pushed to Fund". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Surprise Bidder Enters Battle for T-Mobile US". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "Free Mobile sparks French telecoms war". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "France's Iliad Drops Plan to Acquire T-Mobile US". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Iliad's 2019 accounts". LegalTile.
  9. ↑ "Mobile : le "basta !" d'Iliad, qui se lance en Italie". La Tribune (in French). Paris, France. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  10. ↑ "Iliad débarque en Italie avec une offre qu'il veut "révolutionnaire"". Capital (in French). Gennevilliers, France. 29 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  11. ↑ "Iliad (Free) dresse une nouvelle feuille de route pour 2024". validate.perfdrive.com. 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  12. ↑ Rosemain, Mathieu; González, Andrés (2019-05-07). "French tycoon Niel to sell mobile towers to Cellnex for 2.7 billion euros". reuters.com. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  13. ↑ Rosemain, Mathieu; Koper, Anna; De Clercq, Geert (September 21, 2020). "Iliad's shares fall after $4.2 billion bid for Polish telco Play". reuters.com. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  14. ↑ Kar-Gupta, Sudip; Rosemain, Mathieu (July 30, 2021). "French billionaire Niel bids $3.7 bln to take Iliad private". reuters.com. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  15. ↑ "Iliad poursuit sa conquête de l'Europe en rachetant UPC Poland". Les Echos (in French). 2021-09-22. Archived from the original on 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  16. ↑ Total Telecom, “iliad Group becomes one of Europe’s top five telecom operators”
  17. ↑ Telecoms.com, “iliad hits €10 billion revenue milestone”
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