Orange S.A.
Orange S.A. (), rebranded as Orange, formerly France Télécom S.A., stylized as france telecom, is a French multinational telecommunications corporation. It has 266 million customers worldwide and employs 89,000 people in France, and 59,000 elsewhere. It is the 11th largest mobile network operator in the world and the 4th largest in Europe after Vodafone, Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom. In 2015, the group had revenue of €40 billion. The company's head office is located in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Orange has been the company's main brand for mobile, landline, internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since  2006. It originated in 1994 when Hutchison Whampoa acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications during the early 1990s and rebranded it as "Orange". It became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. The company was rebranded as Orange on 1 July 2013. The company has faced criticism due to the Orange S.A. suicides. History. Nationalised service (1878–1980s). In 1792, under the French Revolution, the first communication network was developed to enable the rapid transmission of information in a warring and unsafe country. That was the optical telegraphy network of Claude Chappe. In  1878, after the invention of the electrical telegraph and then the invention of the telephone, the French State created a Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Telephone Services were added to the ministry when they were nationalised in 1889. However, it was not until 1923 that the second 'T' (for 'telephones') appeared and the department of P&T became PTT. In 1941, a General Direction of Telecommunications was created within this ministry. Then, in 1944, the National Centre of Telecommunications Studies (CNET) was created to develop the telecommunications industry in France. In the 1970s, France attempted to make up for its delay  in developing communications infrastructure, compared to other countries, by launching the programme "Delta LP" (increasing the main lines). It was at the time when the majority of the local loop was built; that is all the cables linking the users to the operator. Moreover, with the help of French manufacturers, digital switching, the Minitel and the GSM standard were invented by engineers and CNET researchers. In 1982, Telecom introduced Minitel online ordering for its customers. Creation of France Télécom (1988–1997). Until 1988, France Télécom was known as the "direction générale des Télécommunications", a division of the Ministry of Posts and  Telecommunications. It became autonomous in 1990. This was in response to a European directive, aimed at making competition mandatory in public services from 1 January 1998. The 2 July 1990 Bill changed France Télécom into an operator of public law, with Marcel Roulet the first Chairman. Since then, the company has had a separate body corporate from the State and acquired financial autonomy. It was privatised by Lionel Jospin's Plural Left government starting on 1 January 1998. The French government, both directly and through its holding company ERAP, continues to hold a stake of almost 27% in the company . In addition, the government Conseil of Ministers names the CEO. In September 1995, Michel Bon was appointed to run France Télécom Group. Section::::'Roaring Nineties' (1997–2000). In 1997, the capital of the new public company was successfully floated whereas the dot-com bubble phenomenon made the stock exchanges bullish. A second share offering occurred in 1998. France Télécom got behind in the internationalization launched by its international competitors such as Vodafone, thus, it started looking for targets at the highest speculation rate of the dot-com bubble. Moreover, its alliance with Deutsche Telekom based on a reciprocal capital contribution of 2 % broke off when Deutsche Telekom announced that they were planning to do business with Telecom Italia without letting the French know – even if this project ended up failing. Acquisition of Orange and privatisation. In July 1991, Hutchison Telecom, a UK subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, acquired a controlling stake in Microtel Communications Ltd, who by then had acquired a licence to develop a mobile network in the United Kingdom. Hutchison renamed Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd, and on 28 April 1994 the Orange brand was launched in the UK mobile phone market. A holding  company structure was adopted in 1995 with the establishment of Orange plc. In April 1996, Orange went public and floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, majority-owned by Hutchison (48.22%), followed by BAe (21.1%). In June 1996, it became the youngest company to enter the FTSE 100, valued at £2.4 billion. In October 1999, the German conglomerate Mannesmann AG acquired Orange for a price equivalent to €7,900 per customer, i.e. US$33bn. Mannesmann's acquisition of Orange triggered Vodafone to make a hostile takeover bid for Mannesmann. Shortly thereafter, in February 2000, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann for  US$183 billion, and decided to divest Orange because the EU regulations wouldn't allow it to hold two mobile licences. In August 2000, France Télécom bought Orange plc from Vodafone for a total estimated cost of €39.7 bn. At the time, France Télécom also bought stakes in several other international firms (GlobalOne, Equant, Internet Telecom, Freeserve, EresMas, NTL and Mobilcom), of which some have since been sold back. Through this process, France Télécom became the fourth biggest global operator. The mobile telephone operations of Orange plc were merged with the majority of the mobile operations of France Télécom , forming the new group Orange S.A. On 13 February 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange with an initial public offering of 95 Euros per share, with a secondary listing in London. In May 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on the CAC 40, the benchmark stock market index of the top 40 French companies in terms of market capitalisation. In June 2001, the France Telecom Mobile brands Itinéris, OLA, and Mobicarte were replaced by the Orange brand. On 21 November 2003, France Telecom withdrew the 13.7% of Orange's shares traded on the Paris stock exchange . On 2 October 2002, the CEO, Thierry Breton was given the task of turning the company around after the company became crippled by debt following the drop of the company's stock price. On 30 September 2002, the company's stock price was €6.94, down from €219 on 2 March 2000. France Télécom was the second most indebted company worldwide in terms of short-term liabilities. The company obtained 15bn of debt adjustment that needed to be borne by banks and investors, another 15bn as a capital increase from the French State since it was still the majority  shareholder, and an additional 15bn in cash from internal savings. On 25 February 2005, Thierry Breton was appointed Minister of Finance and Industry and Didier Lombard, who had been head of the firm's new technologies division, replaced him as CEO. NeXT scheme and rebranding to Orange (2006–present). The NeXT scheme was the recovery plan for France Télécom which aimed at, among other things, reducing costs, especially wage costs, carrying on a converging policy for its products and services, and grouping together all the brands under a single brand, except for the activities dealing with fixed-line telephone which  would stay under the designation 'France Télécom'. Consequently, this led to the disappearance of a number of brands. From 1 June 2006, France Télécom tried to commercialize all its products under a single worldwide brand, becoming the sole brand of the France Telecom group for Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries in which Orange operated. Orange Business Services became the brand for all its business services offerings worldwide, replacing the Equant brand. In June 2007, Orange and Mid Europa Partners acquired Austrian mobile network company One, re-branding it as Orange Austria. In 2012, it was  sold to Hutchison 3G and the Orange Austria brand was terminated. In November 2008, Orange launched five Orange Cinema Series channels. To do so, Orange bought the exclusive rights from Warner Bros. for first runs of all new films, previously held by TPS Star (a subsidiary of the Canal+ Group), as well as all films in its catalogue and rights to the film catalogues of Gaumont, HBO and MGM. Orange also secured exclusive rights to broadcast Saturday evening Ligue 1 football matches from the French Football Federation. Free accused Orange of tied-selling as the Orange channels were only  available to its subscribers. In June 2008, the firm abandoned a €27 billion bid for Swedish operator TeliaSonera after the two companies failed to agree terms. In 2008, Orange was given permission from Apple to sell the iPhone in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets. On 8 September 2009, Orange and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom announced they were in advanced talks to merge their UK operations to create the largest mobile operator with 37% of the market. Both T-Mobile and Orange brands were kept due to  differences in their targeted markets. T-Mobile remained the budget-conscious offering and Orange the premium one, although there was some overlap as of February 2011. On 5 April 2009, Orange won an Arbitration Court case against Orascom Telecom, forcing Orascom to transfer its stake in Mobinil to Orange at a price of E£441,658 per Mobinil share. On 28 October 2009, Orange changed the name of its Luxembourgish telecommunication company VOXMobile to Orange. On 5 November 2009, Orange Armenia launched telecommunication services in Armenia. On 11 December 2009, Egypt's regulator approved an offer from a unit of France Telecom  (Orange) to buy Mobinil. In 2010, Orange's CEO, Didier Lombard, was replaced by Stéphane Richard. The company was also reorganised internally, most notably with the arrival of former Culture Minister Christine Albanel as head of communications for the group. In mid-April 2010, Orange UK announced that it would outsource the management of its broadband network to BT. This announcement was greeted positively by broadband commentators, who felt that the move was likely to improve Orange's broadband quality and customer services. On 2 March 2012, Didier Lombard, who remained special advisor to Stéphane Richard, left the company. His  departure was shadowed by controversy over his stock options: he was suspected of having stayed with the company longer to wait for the France Telecom share to recover and then exercise his stock option. The share was trading at around €16, whereas his stock options were at €23. On 3 February 2012, Hutchison Whampoa announced that it would buy Orange Austria for US$1.7 billion. The deal closed on 3 January 2013, and the Orange brand was phased out on 19 August 2013, when its operations were merged into 3. In March 2012, France Télécom bought 93.9% of  Mobinil, an Egyptian mobile operator, from Naguib Sawiris's Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) in an effort to double its revenue in MENA by 2015. On 28 May 2013 at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, shareholders approved changing the name of the group to Orange S.A. This became effective on 1 July 2013. In September 2014, Orange agreed a deal to acquire Spanish firm Jazztel for a fee of around €3.4 billion. As of October 2018, Orange has teamed up with Google in order to install a transatlantic undersea cable, Dunant, to share data between the United States and  France at faster speeds. Planned to begin operation in 2020, the fiber-based cable has a design capacity of 250 terabits per second (Tbit/s) and will span approximately 6600 kilometers in length. in July 2020, Orange launched a satellite-based home broadband service utilising the Eutelsat Konnect satellite. Shareholders. The major shareholders of Orange as of 31 December 2015 are the state of France through Agence des participations de l'État and Banque publique d'investissement (replacing Fonds stratégique d'investissement) for 23.04%. As of mid-2013, Orange employees owned 4.81%, and the company itself owned 0.58%. Operations. Mobile. Orange is the sole  brand used in the marketing of the company's mobile offers; the Itineris, Ola and Mobicarte brands have been combined since 2001, and Mobicarte became a special prepaid calling offer. As of 31 December 2010, Orange has 150 million mobile customers worldwide, 17.9% of whom are in France. Orange France is the leading mobile telecommunications operator in France, with a market share of 45.38% as of 2 November 2009. The Orange brand name was licensed to a number of operators which Orange S.A. did not own, these include: Landline and Internet. Orange took over the landline and Internet businesses of  France Telecom and Wanadoo in 2006. Since then, Orange is the sole brand of France Telecom for landline and Internet services worldwide, with a few exceptions, such as Mobistar in Belgium and TPSA in Poland. Orange's triple-play broadband Internet offers are supplied through the Livebox. As of 31 December 2010, Orange has 13.7 million broadband ADSL customers worldwide, 67% of whom are in France40. The Livebox is the ADSL modem supplied to Orange's ADSL and FTTH customers in France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and Tunisia, and to WiMAX customers in Cameroon. It serves as  a bridge between the Internet access and the home network through several communication interfaces (Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi). The Livebox has evolved over time. The Livebox 1.0 was replaced by version 1.1, the Mini Livebox, followed by the Livebox 2.0. The newest version was scheduled to be rolled out 2012 41. The Livebox is offered on a monthly contract for €3 per month or for purchase for €59. Number of Liveboxes rented in 2008: 7.3 million, a 12.3% increase in one year. Broadcasting. Beginning in 2003, Orange's strategy has centred on the acquisition, creation and diffusion of  content. This starts with the creation of MaLigne.tv in 2003, later renamed Orange TV, an ADSL television access service and a video on demand service. In 2004, Orange organises a television access service for mobile phones. In 2007, Orange creates and, in 2008, enters into a partnership with France Televisions to broadcast pre-recorded programming from the public national television and to roll out theme channels for sports, cinema and television series. Dubbed Content Everywhere in 2008, the content access strategy is announced simultaneously with the launch of the Orange cinema series television channels, and aims to offer customers access  to all of the company's content, anywhere and from any device. OCS. Orange Cinema Series is launched 13 November 2008, along with Orange Sport; it comprises five channels devoted to movies (Orange Ciné Max, Ciné Happy, Ciné Choc, Ciné Novo, Ciné Géant). The channels primarily show films from the Warner Bros. and HBO catalogues. Orange installs additional VOD services on its channels, allowing viewers to watch programmes broadcast in the previous 30 days whenever they like, as well as supplementary programmes from the previous month. Orange Sport. Orange Sport is launched 13 November 2008. Orange secures the broadcast rights  for the Saturday evening lineup of Ligue 1 matches from season 2008/2009 to season 2011/2012, and the rights to home matches of eight Serie A clubs (Sampdoria, Atalanta, Chievo, Reggina, Siena, Palermo, Udinese and Napoli). The acquisition of these rights marks the start of competition for sports programs with the Canal+ group. Video on demand. Orange offers services for video on demand access using the Orange decoder, a computer or a mobile phone. Orange offers free programming from the catalogues of available works of France Television, M6 and TF1 for one week after their initial broadcast. Online entertainment. In 1997 , France Telecom created Goa, an online entertainment subsidiary. The site is launched as a platform for players of massively multiplayer online games. In 2002, Goa acquires the operating license for Dark Age of Camelot. In 2007 Goa ceases to be a subsidiary and is merged into Orange. In 2009 Orange refocuses Goa.com on online entertainment and gradually ceases to operate massively multiplayer online games. In August 2010, goa.com disappears to become the Orange Jeux portal. Subsidiaries, joint ventures and holdings. Orange is a communications access provider offering customers access through multiple platforms. The four key platforms Orange operates are: France  Télécom merged the different internal divisions managing each platform and now all operate under the Orange brand. Orange Business Services. Orange is present in the U.S. through its Orange Business Services division and its venture capital historical partner Innovacom as well as two R&D labs: one in Boston, Massachusetts and the other in South San Francisco, California. "OpenTransit" is Orange's backbone network. It covers Europe, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and loops back to Paris. BT Group. Orange and Deutsche Telekom merged their UK businesses in 2010 to form a joint venture branded as EE. In December 2014 , Orange were in talks with BT Group regarding the acquisition of EE for an estimated £12.5bn. On 5 February 2015, it was announced that BT would be acquiring EE in a £12.5bn deal, in which Orange S.A would take a 4% stake in the BT Group. The acquisition of EE was completed 29 January 2016. Globecast. Globecast is a provider of transmission of satellite and production services for professional broadcast, online content and enterprise multimedia. GlobeCast World TV is a division of Globecast. In 2012, Globecast also began launching a direct to home OTT IPTV service called MyGlobeTV  in the United States using NetGem set top boxes. The MyGlobeTV service was discontinued In December 2013. Viaccess Orca. Viaccess Orca is a provider of IPTV and OTT TV service platforms and security services. It is headquartered in Paris La Defense. Viaccess-orca acquired Squadeo company in 2017 and is able to supply video secured player. Viaccess Orca is also involved in content tracking over internet, providing anti-piracy services. Orange Labs. Orange Labs (formerly France Télécom R&D) is the research and development division of Orange. This division was derived from different previous entities, such as CNET (Centre national d'études  des télécommunications) created in 1944, the CCETT created in 1972, as well as other entities. In 2007, France Télécom R&D became known as Orange Labs, a global network of R&D entities. CCETT/France Télécom R&D contributed to various international standards, such as ISO/IEC MPEG and JPEG standards or DAB and DVB standards. CCETT, IRT and Philips developed a digital audio two-channel compression system known as Musicam or MPEG Audio Layer II (Emmy Award in Engineering 2000). In 2010, Orange devoted 1.9% of its revenue, or €845 million, to research and development. Since January 2007 Orange has unified  its research laboratories and technocentres in the Orange Labs network. As of 31 December 2010 Orange held a portfolio of 7,892 patents, 327 which were filed in 2010. Orange employs 3,700 people in research and development per year throughout the organisation, including more than 200 doctoral candidates and post-doctorates. Orange's research and development is based on partnerships with industry, suppliers and operators, universities and schools, academic institutes and research programs such as the following: Two types of infrastructure coexist in Orange's research and development: the research laboratories and the technocentres. The latter are responsible for Orange innovations  and consist of multidisciplinary teams of researchers, engineers, and marketing and sales personnel. Cityvox. Cityvox is a network of websites with local content (restaurants, cultural happenings, etc.) created in 1999. Orange purchased the network site in 2008. Deezer. In late August 2010 Orange acquired an 11% share in the streaming site Deezer. With this acquisition, the operator offered its subscribers a new "Deezer Premium" option: paid streaming music service with no advertising and 7 million titles. Dailymotion. On 25 January 2011 Orange announced the acquisition of 49% of Dailymotion, a French online video platform, at a cost of €58.8  million. The group also secured an option to acquire all of the shares in the platform in 2013. This is indicative of a new strategy by Orange, which seeks to offer a full range of multi-screen video to its subscribers. Studio 37. Created in 2007 co-produces and acquires films, unlike the Canal+ Group's StudioCanal. The producer Frédérique Dumas starts the studio, which has an initial budget of 30 million Euros. For its growth, Orange negotiates exclusivity agreements with Warner, HBO, Fidélité Films and Gaumont, ensuring a stream of films for its TV Orange Cinema Series package. In  2011, Studio 37 co-produced The Artist which went on to win best picture and four further awards at the 84th Academy Awards. This makes it the first silent film to win an award since the original ceremony in 1929. Cloudwatt. Cloudwatt is a cloud services provider set up in 2012 by Orange (44%), the French government through Caisse des Dépôts (33%) and Thales (22%). In March 2015, Orange acquired all remaining shares of Cloudwatt to strengthen its enterprise cloud services offering. Aire. In January 2019 Orange acquired a minority shareholding in Aire Labs, a credit data platform in the  UK. SecureData. In February 2019 Orange acquired UK cybersecurity provider SecureData for an undisclosed sum, merging it with Orange Cyberdefense Division. SecureLink. Orange acquired SecureLink, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity company, in 2019 for €515 million. SUMA Movil. In November 2019 Orange España, a subsidiary of Orange, acquired SUMA Móvil Spain from Grupo-Ingenium for an undisclosed sum. Telekom Romania. In early August 2020 Orange reached an agreement with the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) to purchase Telekom Romania and establish a new telecommunications entity. As part of this agreement, the Romanian government would own a 20% stake  in the new entity, and Orange would take over fixed operations. The MCSI had first entered talks to sell Telekom Romania in September 2019, when Deutsche Telekom announced that it was prepared to sell its stake in Telekom Romania to Orange. Future4care. In June 2021, Orange partners with Sanofi, Capgemini and Generali to launch Future4care. This all-European start-up accelerator will help develop upcoming companies focused on digital health. Controversy. Staff suicides. Between the beginning of January 2008 and April 2011, more than 60 France Télécom employees committed suicide, (in 2008 and the early part of 2009 there were  25 ) some leaving notes blaming stress and misery at work. In October 2009, the wave of suicides led former Deputy CEO Louis-Pierre Wenes to resign under trade union pressure, to be replaced by Stéphane Richard. Faced with repeated suicides, the company promoted Stéphane Richard to chief executive officer on 1 February 2010, while Didier Lombard remained as chairman. The suicide rate among France Télécom's 102,000 domestic employees is 15.3 per year, compared with an average of 14.7 suicides per 100,000 in the French population as a whole. Following an investigation, the Inspection du travail (Labour Inspection) told the  labour union Sud-PTT that the work organisation at France Télécom "was conducive to generating suffering at work" and "health risks" for employees. An investigation was conducted by the audit firm Technologia at the request of France Télécom's management. Of the 102,843 employees in the group's parent company, 80,080 responded, i.e. a response rate of 77.9%. The fact-finding report revealed a "very poor general feeling", "strained physical and mental health", and a "tense and even violent working environment" for some categories of personnel. Working conditions were deemed difficult, mainly for personnel in charge of sales and "customer  interventions". Given heavy media coverage, these findings were the source of major contention about working conditions. On 20 December 2019, former CEO Didier Lombard and Orange were found guilty of moral harassment towards their employees. Access to some sites limited. In 2011, following complaints by Internet users, Megaupload accused Orange of not providing sufficient connectivity to its site, thus severely limiting throughput from France, an allegation Orange denied. Accusations of false advertising in France. In November 2009, three users lodged a complaint against Orange for false advertising concerning its "Unlimited 3G Key" service. These customers criticised the operator for  the misleading way in which this service is presented, since it isn't in fact unlimited. While it is true that there is no time limit, the user cannot download more than 1 gigabyte per month, thus limiting browsing. Unaware of this, the three plaintiffs browsed beyond plan limits and had to pay additional fees as a result. Corruption in Tunisia. In March 2011, the information website OWNI uncovered a questionable financial deal that enabled the Orange group to acquire a 3G license. Anticompetitive practices in French overseas departments. On 28 July 2011, the Competition Authority fined France  Télécom €27.6 million for having improperly impeded the development of new competing operators in the French overseas departments (primarily Réunion). France Télécom used its dominant position, resulting in particular from its former monopoly, to take unfair advantage of its competitors. The practices identified by the Authority were: SMS and MMS propagation of 1 January 2011 in France. On 1 January 2011, Orange users' SMS and MMS were sent and billed multiple times. The operator agreed to reimburse the excess costs to consumers, explaining that the error came from a "third party operator" (which turned out to be Bouygues Telecom ), said not to have sent acknowledgements, which caused the messages to be resent. A computer problem at the Bouygues platform was blamed. During the night of 31 December 2010 to 1 January 2011, more than 930 million text messages were exchanged in France (for the three operators combined), setting a new record compared with the peaks of the previous years. Controversies in UK regarding the quality of service. On 21 March 2007 "Watchdog", a television series by the BBC focusing on consumer protection, published the results from a broadband survey they held. According to the survey Orange is the worst  ISP in the UK. 68% of Orange customers that took part in the survey said they were unsatisfied with Orange's customer service, it was voted as the most unreliable broadband provider, and it had the highest number of dissatisfied customers. Two thirds of Orange customers experienced problems cancelling their Orange broadband. In response to the problems with Orange UK broadband and 3G broadband during March 2009 and April 2009 the 3G data network has been upgraded to 3.5G and increased signal coverage. This new network can be seen in action on many mobile phones which display  network for instance the Nokia N95, when the phone detects the higher speed. The Orange UK mobile broadband USB adapter works with the new network. The 3G networks for all telecommunication suppliers still struggle to get the throughput that was originally advertised when these networks were announced. The UK Telecoms Regulator has reported on the challenges for all suppliers. A consumer organisation forum web site known as OrangeProblems.co.uk focuses on the poor level of service provided by Orange Broadband in the UK. Initially set up as WanadooProblems.co.uk, the site focuses on the infamous Orange local loop unbundling and poor  customer service but covers a wider range of Orange operations such as lost email, significantly delayed SMTP and outages, suspicions of eavesdropping, et al. Orange Mobile has been criticised during a Channel 4 News investigation for a lack of security which potentially exposed customer records to fraud. In August 2007 Orange was criticised for summarily deleting email accounts tied to old Freeserve and Wanadoo 'pay as you go' dial-up accounts with no warning. In August 2008, after well publicised problems with iPhone 3G performances, customers compared their download speed and discovered that Orange in France was capping 3 G download bandwidth. Orange admitted capping to 384kbit/s, well below the theoretical 7.2Mbit/s provided by the iPhone. Orange uncapped 3G and 3G+ by mid-September 2008. Accusations of antisemitism and calls for boycott. The French chairman and CEO of the Orange telecommunications company, Stéphane Richard said in Cairo regarding his company operations in Israel, "Believe me, I would cancel the contract tomorrow if I could. We want to end this and to fix this; we don't want it." Later, Orange announced its desire to discontinue use of its popular brand name by its Israeli operator Partner  Communications Company. The president of the State of Israel Reuven Rivlin said in response "Just yesterday Israel faced attacks from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bodies, who have chosen to delegitimize the state of Israel, and to launch rockets at us from the Gaza Strip. We must face these challenges together, right and left," Rivlin said. Israeli culture minister Miri Regev said, "I call on Jews of France and the world to disconnect from Orange unless Stéphane Richard takes back his words. The time has come for them to understand that Jews in the world and sane voices that oppose  anti-Semitism and racism also have power." The statement on the company's website announced in response that "The Orange Group is a telecoms operator and as such its primary concern is to defend and promote the value of its brand in markets in which it is present," the statement began. "The Group does not engage in any kind of political debate under any circumstance." Later, Richard visited Israel to clarify his remarks. He met Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu and former president, Shimon Peres. Richard told both Netanyahu and Peres that Orange has not and will not support anti-Israel  boycott efforts, and insisted that its announced decision to abrogate its relationship with Partner was purely commercial and not political. On 30 June 2015, Orange and Partner announced a change to their 10-year licensing agreement. Orange paid Partner €40 million to add an opt out clause to the contract, with which Partner conducted a market survey which is determine the best course of action moving forward. In the first year only Partner can opt out, with either party being able to opt out in the second year. Regardless of which party opts to exercise the out clause, Orange  will pay Partner an additional €50 million to end the arrangement. Orange stated that the money paid to Partner was purely for re-branding purposes and affirmed their previous statement that their wish to leave Israel is based on desire to discontinue license agreements and maintain only subsidiaries that they control, rather than a boycott. Orange would make the relevant payments over the course of two years and charge it to their books as a mix of marketing, sales, customer services and related expenses. As part of the agreement Orange's research and development activities within Israel would transition  to the Orange name, but would be restricted from entering the telecommunications services market. In September 2015, Orange reaffirmed their commitment to Israel with an investment in Hola, a video distribution network. In February 2016, Orange and Partner decided to terminate their agreement. As a result, rebranding has resulted in Orange Israel becoming part of Partner. Governance. Overview of governance. Governance of the Orange group is centred in its board of directors, executive committee and three committees that steer Orange's strategy: Chief executive officers. The company is headed either by the chairman of the board of directors, whose title  in that case is the chairman and chief executive officer, or by another person appointed by the board of directors and given the title of chief executive officer. Board of directors. The Orange group is governed by a board of directors composed of a minimum of twelve members and a maximum of twenty-two members, divided as follows: three are appointed by the French State, three are elected by the employees, one is elected by the shareholders and represents employee shareholders, the fifteen other members are appointed by the shareholders. The board members serve for a term of four years . In 2011, the board of directors was composed of 15 members: Executive committee. The executive committee reports to the chairman and CEO. Its purpose is to coordinate the implementation of Orange's strategic orientations and to oversee the achievement of operational, social, technical and financial resource allocation objectives. It comprises fifteen members. Head office. Orange's head office, since 2012, is based at 78, Rue Olivier de Serres in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The company's former head office was based at 6, Place d'Alleray in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. The building was the head office from 1998  until 2012. Eight hundred employees worked at the site. Orange Foundation. In 1987 France Telecom established the France Telecom Foundation. On 16 January 2007, the foundation changed its name to Orange Foundation. In 1990 France Telecom Foundation received the top award for corporate philanthropy from ADMICAL. In 1995 France Telecom Foundation received the top award for solidarity from ADMICAL. The board of directors of Orange Foundation consists of representatives of Orange, independent personalities and employee representatives. Its purpose is to support projects related to health, particularly autism; education, particularly schooling for girls in developing countries; and culture, particularly group vocal  music. Projects supported by Orange Foundation are chosen by committees of experts devoted to each major theme. The Foundation has been involved in 300 to 400 projects per year since 1987. The Foundation works with international NGOs and local associations involved in long-term projects in countries in which Orange is based for better follow-up of these projects. Sponsorship. From 2000 to 2002, Orange was a major sponsor of British Formula One team Arrows. Orange was the sponsor for UEFA Euro 2012 and UEFA Euro 2016. The company was the official jersey sponsor of the national basketball teams of  the Central African Republic and Senegal at the 2015 FIBA Africa Championship. Orange was the kit sponsor of the French association football club Olympique de Marseille for the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. The company became a sponsor of esports organization Team Vitality in 2018.