Who is Xavier Niel, the son of Arnault which bought 11% of Telecom – Il Sole 24 Ore

History Article

Close

This article was published on Oct. 29, 2015 at 21:10.
The last change is the October 29, 2015 at 22:37.

Capello long, jeans and white shirt with no tie strictly, Xavier Niel does not look for anything to her colleagues in the elite French business and management. Besides its history has nothing to do with the classic path of formation of the great patron beyond the Alps. Niel is a self-taught, quite a rarity by the parties in Paris. And one who loves to upset the rules, throw a stone in the pond of the status quo. Especially if you are at stake of money.

Born in 1967 into a middle class family of Maison-Alfort, quiet town south of the capital, is passionate about information technology in 15 years, when his father gave him a Sinclair ZX81. A passion that will never abandon him more. In 1984, at age 17, she realizes that the Minitel (the ancestor of the Internet, somehow) has extraordinary potential. Abandoned his studies (also in mathematics), it creates the first company and flows in a space that looks more than promising, and that of sex encounters. Start making the first money investing in some sex shops and peepshow in Paris and Strasbourg.

A debut in business a few years later (in 2004) cost him a month in jail on charges of procuring and Santé (each ending with storage), as well as that of misuse of corporate assets (for this will be sentenced to two years, although covered by the conditional, and 250 thousand euro fine).
Meanwhile founded Iliad (thinking of the Trojan horse that hackers introduce systems considered inviolable ) and Free, betting on the future of the Internet. Since the late 90 his fixation is to invent a tool that can connect to the Internet, the telephone and the television.

On 1 November 2002 the genius of Niel ‘computer – but also marketing – launches the Freebox with its offer triple pay. A technological revolution made in France (to EUR 29.90, a third less than the proposals of the market at that time) that will force everyone to follow him.

Niel becomes rich and invests in two directions: the financing of start-ups – with the creation of funds aimed, often along with other protagonists of the new wave of high-tech French (at the end of 2010, the American magazine Business Insider cites his Kima Ventures such as business angels most important in the world for number of investments) – and the media. In 2010, together with Pierre Bergé and Matthieu Pigasse, buy Le Monde. Then the Nouvel Obs. And then comes in many sites of investigative journalism, by Mediapart in Bakchich until the Atlantic.

But the core business remains one of the Internet and telecommunications. On a market in plaster, in the hands of three big operators who make profits hand over fist, launches in January of 2012 the offer Free Mobile, 19, 90 €, with unlimited calls to French numbers and other 40 countries. Another revolution, that will completely transform the scenario, putting pressure on competitors and bringing Free to win in three years, a 16% share and 11 million customers, making it the third operator in France.

The parent company Iliad – whose Niel has 55% – now has a market capitalization of 11.2 billion and ended the first half with revenues of € 2.2 billion (+ 7%), EBITDA of 725 million (+ 16%) and net profits of 163 million (+ 16%), with a debt of 1.3 billion. And the goal is to reach 25% of the market.

Married his second wife, the daughter of Bernard Arnault, owner of the number one global luxury LVMH – enters the top ten billionaires French: in ninth place, with a personal fortune of 8 billion. She opened a school, free, for geeks and invests 200 million in what would become “the largest incubator in the world of start-ups.”
He also began to look around in search of targets for external growth: disburses 322 million to buy Monaco Telecom, transformed in technological laboratory of the group, and 2.3 billion for the third mobile operator Orange Suisse Switzerland.

It fails the acquisition of T-Mobile in the United States (18 billion from an operation, two US funds, money, allies and credit lines not lacking), but the ride to the opportunities – in markets with strong potential and in view of the inevitable restructuring of the European telecommunications – continues. Today in Italy, where it could play a role of great complementarity than Bolloré. Tomorrow, it says, in Belgium.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Permalink