All posts in Xavier Niel
#FrenchTechFriday: Keep your home private with Snips
Personal assistants have made their way into our homes. We have opened our doors to Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook… We are giving them the key to our most best-kept secret: our family. And we pay for it with private information. French startup Snips wants to take to nosing out of voice assistants with strong […]
Xavier Niel scoops up Orange Suisse for €2.3 billion
Having successfully entered and disrupted France’s telco market, first in triple play and then in mobile, he’s recently been setting his sights on new markets. Although the T-mobile US acquisition didn’t go his way, he did have have a successful first move abroad by taking a 55% stake in Monoco Telecom. Now he’s wrapping up […]
Free Mobile’s €19/month 4G Mobile plan sounds too good to be true. So, is it?
In his typical fashion, Free Mobile’s passionate CEO Xavier Niel announced the mobile provider’s 4G offer via Twitter this week. Less than two years after Niel announced that his company Iliad would offer unlimited calls, text, and 3G data for just 19,99€ with an equally astonishing 2,99€ plan without data, Niel has announced that he […]
Rumor confirmed: Xavier Niel launches tuition-free developer school named ’42’
We reported yesterday on a rumor, originating from Olivier Ezratty that Xavier Niel would be launching a tuition-free (see update below) developer school. The rumor was confirmed today in a press conference by Niel himself, who announced that the new school would be opening in November and would be called ’42’ in reference to science fiction author […]
Xavier Niel to cofound a new tuition-free Paris developer school with former EpiTech Founder
Rumors have begun circulating that Xavier Niel will announce a “ecole de programmation” tomorrow morning. Journalists received invitations to a press conference for tomorrow morning, but, like all things with Niel, this launch has been months in the making. While the news that Niel will launch a school dedicated to IT is interesting – the […]
Xavier Niel inspires hero in new book
With all the news about the iPhone5 coming out and no 4G in France (or not?), it seems all the more appropriate that Free Mobile founder Xavier Niel, who also invests his fair share in seed-stage startups via Kima Ventures, has become the source of inspiration for French writer Aurelien Bellanger for his latest book, La […]
Did Free even pierce Orange's peel?
When Xavier Niel announced the launch of Free Mobile about six weeks ago, he invited not only comparisons to Steve Jobs but also the attention of the global tech world. Free’s approach to the French market — to build a mobile network on the back on its substantial consumer wifi network — is certainly unique, […]
Hadopi: What SOPA looks like from the Eiffel Tower
Last week, the US looked a lot more like France than it usually does, thanks to the uproar caused by SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). I probably don’t need to remind anyone reading this that the internet was flooded with the protesting voices of companies like Wikipedia, Google, Reddit and more against the would-be anti-piracy law. […]
[rant] Bouygues answers #FreeMobile "Lalala, I can't hear you"
I wouldn’t consider myself a “fan” of Bouygues – in fact, in France no one is happy with their ISP, no matter who they have. In conversations, you more often hear “Oh, you have [SFR/Bouygues/Orange], they suck!” followed shortly by a “I mean, I don’t like [not the one you have], but at least I […]
Where Will the Mothership Land?
There are more and more startups every day: more and more people are choosing to start their own company instead of working for another – yeah, yeah, we’ve all read the articles. But here’s the deal: all those startups Hajj-ing their way to Palo Alto to get a piece of the pie, they’re gonna have […]