Last updated: January 23, 2018
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Government positions clouded discussions
Orange and Deutsche Telekom discussed a Franco/German merger between the two last year, Reuters reports, but the talks ended when the companies couldn't get onto equal footing.
"It was studied by internal teams. But people quickly came to the conclusion that nothing could be done as Deutsche Telekom is far bigger than Orange," a source tells Reuters.
The French and German governments hold sizable stakes in the companies respectively. Politics complicated the completion of a deal, as did a purchasing JV the two have, and overlapping business in Poland, Slovakia and Romania.