On Friday, Xavier Niel announced a “simplified public tender” offer for Iliad shares at an offer price of $216 per share. The proposal saw a 61% increase for the stock on the Euronext Paris, boosting Niel’s net worth by $3 billion up to an estimated net worth of $10.4 billion. Niel owns approximately 70% of Iliad as well as a controlling stake in the French newspaper Le Monde.
In 1999, Niel created French internet service provider Free four years after investing in WorldNet. WorldNet was France’s first Internet provider, which Niel founded in 1993 at the age of just 25. In 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, Niel sold WorldNet for more than $50 million. Since then, Iliad has become a giant in European telecoms. The company currently employs over 15,000 people, has 42.7 million subscribers, and saw $7 billion in revenues in 2020.
