Vivendi on Saturday accepted a bid by French cable and fibre-optic network operator Numericable worth 17 billion euros to buy its SFR mobile phone unit, rejecting a rival offer from telecoms group Bouyges. "The supervisory board has unanimously decided to accept the Altice/Numericable bid," Vivendi said in a statement, saying it was the more likely to favour "growth (and) create value for customers, employees and shareholders". SFR and Numericable are not in the same segments of the market and their activities are complementary," Vivendi added. The deal with Altice/Numericable, which Vivendi called "a better balance", would involve an initial payment of 13.5 billion euros, followed by another payment of 750 million euros and eventually the ability to own and then sell its 20 percent stake in the new enterprise.



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