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62-571: PA Media Group also encompasses Globelynx, which provides TV-ready remotely monitored camera systems for corporate clients to connect with TV news broadcasters in the UK and worldwide; TNR, a specialist communications consultancy; Sticky, a digital copywriting and content strategy agency; and StreamAMG, a video streaming business. The group's photography arm, PA Images, has a portfolio comprising more than 20 million photographs online and around 10 million in physical archives dating back 150 years. Founded in 1868 by

124-656: A hostile takeover bid for Mannesmann. Shortly thereafter, in February 2000, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann for US$ 183 billion, and decided to divest Orange because EU regulations would not 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 billion. 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

186-528: 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. The NeXT scheme was the recovery plan for France Télécom which aimed at, among other things, reducing costs, especially wage costs, carrying on

248-614: A controlling stake in Microtel Communications Ltd , which 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

310-409: 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 commercialise all its products under a single worldwide brand, becoming

372-603: A day. She is the Guinness World Record holder as the World's First Virtual Newscaster. Ananova became a subsidiary of mobile telecommunication operator Orange S.A. , after it was purchased from the Press Association (PA) in a £95m deal in 2000, after which it was merged into the Orange main news site. The character Ananova was retired in 2004, but the website continued to provide written news articles until 2009. Ananova

434-584: 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 fibre-based cable has a design capacity of 250 terabits per second (Tbit/s) and will span approximately 6600 kilometres in length. in July 2020, Orange launched

496-626: 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

558-571: A group of provincial newspaper proprietors, the PA provides a London-based service of news-collecting and reporting from around the United Kingdom. The news agency's founders sought to produce a more accurate and reliable alternative to the monopoly service of the telegraph companies. In January 1870 the agency moved from temporary offices into new headquarters at 7 Wine Office Court, off Fleet Street. At 5am on Saturday 5 February 1870, its first press telegram

620-472: A joint venture branded as EE . In December 2014, Orange were in talks with BT Group regarding the acquisition of EE for an estimated £12.5 billion. On 5 February 2015, it was announced that BT would be acquiring EE in a £12.5 billion deal, in which Orange S.A would take a 4% stake in the BT Group. The acquisition of EE was completed on 29 January 2016. Globecast is a provider of managed services for

682-491: 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

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744-699: A result of the company's decision to transfer its fixed-line telephony activities being to its Orange brand, all offers marketed by France Télécom are Orange -branded; and on July 1, 2013, France Télécom itself was rebranded Orange S.A. . In 2019, Orange S.A. employed nearly 148,000 people worldwide, including 88,000 in France. The corporation has throughout the years expanded its activities to include content sales (music, cinema, downloads, etc.), e-commerce, online advertising, M2M, home automation and remote assistance solutions. In 2023, it generated over €43 billion in revenue across all its businesses. In 1792, under

806-476: A satellite-based home broadband service utilising the Eutelsat Konnect satellite . 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%. Orange

868-408: A television access service for mobile phones. In 2007, Orange created Studio 37  [ fr ] and, in 2008, entered into a partnership with France Televisions to broadcast pre-recorded programming from the public national television and to roll out themed channels for sports, cinema and television series. Orange dubbed the strategy Content Everywhere in 2008, announcing it simultaneously with

930-555: A white female with a thin, toned body. Ananova sported short "unnaturally green" hair and was always seen in make-up. Her creators described her as a 28-year-old "girl about town" who stands at 173 cm (5.7 ft) tall and loves the band Oasis and the TV show The Simpsons . Ananova's creators stated the original incarnation of the character was a prototype, and in the future they intended "to allow every individual to customize Ananova, right down to age, race and gender." The character

992-455: A £95m deal. The animated Ananova character was unavailable from 2004, though the Ananova website was still operational and providing written news items until 2009. In April 2010, Orange decided to scrap the name Ananova. Users entering the site ananova.com are now redirected to a Web Hosting Service Directory. Between April 2010 and April 2015 Ananova was known as Orange News. The Orange version of

1054-529: Is a French multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux , near Paris . Orange has been the corporation's main brand for mobile , landline , internet and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services since 2006. It traces its origins back to Hutchison Whampoa acquiring a controlling stake in Microtel Communications in 1994 in

1116-428: Is a free, live, on-demand IP radio streaming service. Users gain access through this service to more than 10,000 FM and web radio stations and 11,000 podcasts from 100 countries. 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

1178-442: Is a network of websites with local content (restaurants, cultural happenings, etc.) created in 1999. Orange purchased the network site in 2008. 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. In 2016 Orange sold Deezer to Access Industries ,

1240-535: 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. Liveradio  [ fr ] : Created by Orange in 2008, Liveradio

1302-604: 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

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1364-525: 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

1426-607: 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

1488-472: 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

1550-813: 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

1612-488: 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 nationalised and added to

1674-754: 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

1736-574: 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$ 33 billion. Mannesmann's acquisition of Orange triggered Vodafone to make

1798-507: The United Kingdom . Microtel Communications became a subsidiary of Mannesmann in 1999 and then was acquired by France Télécom in 2000. The former French public monopoly thus became internationalized following this takeover and has pursued an expansionist policy since. The group is now operates in many countries in Europe , Africa and in the French West Indies . Since February 2012, as

1860-538: 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 is launched 13 November 2008. Orange secures the broadcast rights for the Saturday evening line-up of Ligue 1 matches from season 2008/2009 to season 2011/2012, and

1922-599: 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

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1984-622: The Orange brand. Orange is present in the U.S. through its Orange Business 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. Orange and Deutsche Telekom merged their UK businesses in 2010 to form

2046-550: The Press Association acquired Trinity Mirror's training centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. The NCTJ course in Newcastle has been around since 1969. The business already owned the former Westminster Press-owned Editorial Centre and merged the two businesses to become PA Training. Alamy , a global stock photo agency with over 125 million images, was wholly acquired by PA Media in February 2020. The purchase enables PA Media to enter

2108-536: The United States using NetGem set top boxes. The MyGlobeTV service was discontinued In December 2013. 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 (formerly France Télécom R&D)

2170-409: The broadband internet sector. With 7.3 million Liveboxes rented out, Orange experienced a notable 12.3% increase in just one year. 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 organised

2232-463: 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 French government's role in naming the CEO. In September 1995, Michel Bon

2294-506: 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

2356-513: 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. In July 1991, Hutchison Telecom , a UK subsidiary of the Hong Kong -based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa , acquired

2418-507: 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 per share, with a secondary listing in London. In May 2001, Orange S.A. was listed on

2480-588: 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 in 2012. The Livebox is offered on a monthly contract for €3 per month or for purchase for €59. The Number of Liveboxes rented in 2008,this statistic reflects Orange's significant market penetration and growth in

2542-474: The international stock photography market. Other subsidiaries include Globelynx, founded in 2001; Sticky Content, acquired in full between 2013 and 2015; StreamAMG (Advanced Media Group), acquired in April 2017; and RADAR, founded in 2017. Ananova Ananova was a web-oriented news service that originally featured a computer-simulated newscaster named Ananova programmed to read newscasts to users 24 hours

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2604-462: 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

2666-403: The launch of the Orange cinema series television channels and aimed to offer customers access to all content available through Orange's services, anywhere and from any device. 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

2728-428: The media and broadcast industry, such as TV channel distribution via satellite and Internet, live event production, contribution and distribution services, channel content preparation and playout. GlobeCast World TV was a brand by Globecast for its north-american direct-to-home satellite broadcast of international channels. In 2012, Globecast also began launching a direct-to-consumer OTT IPTV service called MyGlobeTV in

2790-594: The ministry in 1889. However, it was not until 1923 that the second 'T' (for 'telephones') appeared and the department of P&T (Posts and Telegraphs) 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

2852-579: The news agency is Pete Clifton , who was appointed in October 2014. In June 2024, the Central Arbitration Committee forced PA to recognize the National Union of Journalists as the official union representing PA's editorial employees. As of May, the bargaining unit was composed of 274 workers. PA Training is Europe's biggest journalism and media training company. It was formed in 2006, when

2914-515: The news service finished with the end of Orange on-line identity. The Ananova news service was known for its collection of unusual news stories, which it featured in its Quirkies section. The site was frequently referenced by Karl Pilkington during the Ricky Gervais Show . The character of Ananova was given a distinctive look and personality based on celebrities Victoria Beckham , Kylie Minogue , and Carol Vorderman . She appeared as

2976-561: 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

3038-534: The parent of Warner Music Group . 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. In 2015 Vivendi acquired 90% of Dailymotion. Created in 2007 Studio 37  [ fr ] co-produces and acquires films, unlike

3100-484: The programme "Delta LP" (increasing the main lines). It was at that time that 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 -- Minitel and the GSM standard—were invented by engineers and CNET researchers. In 1982, Telecom introduced Minitel online ordering for its customers. Until 1988, France Télécom

3162-641: 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. 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. In 1997, France Telecom created Goa, an online entertainment subsidiary. The site

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3224-440: The sale of its finance publications divisions, which included TelecomFinance and SatelliteFinance. In September 2018 it was announced that the news agency was renamed from Press Association to PA Media, and the umbrella company from PA Group Limited to PA Media Group Limited. This coincided with a move from their Vauxhall Bridge Road offices to a new space that would accommodate the move toward digital media. The editor-in-chief of

3286-455: 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

3348-451: 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 €15 billion of debt adjustment that needed to be borne by banks and investors, another €15 billion as

3410-517: 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

3472-425: Was appointed to run France Télécom Group. 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 internationalisation launched by its international competitors such as Vodafone , thus, it started looking for targets at the highest speculation rate of

3534-502: Was developed by a division of the Press Association , a United Kingdom news agency. The character was devised as a virtual news presenter who would read news stories on demand via computer or mobile phone. Ananova was launched in April 2000. The Press Association soon renamed the division Ananova Ltd. and put the group up for sale. In July 2000, Ananova Ltd. was purchased by the French telecommunications company Orange S.A. as part of

3596-457: 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 as the first Chairman. Since then,

3658-548: Was launched in April 2000 from a press conference in London. A significant portion of Ananova's official website was dedicated to detailed fictions regarding the character's personality. The speech synthesis used by Ananova was developed using patented methods that applied human inflections to extend the rVoice solution from Rhetorical Systems (now Nuance Communications ). Bibliography Orange S.A. Orange S.A. ( French pronunciation: [ɔʁɑ̃ʒ] ) (formerly France Télécom S.A. , stylised as france telecom )

3720-523: Was licensed to a number of operators which Orange S.A. did not own, these include: 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

3782-572: 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

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3844-663: Was transmitted. The agency's first Editor-in-Chief was Arthur Cranfield, appointed in 1926. In 1995, PA moved from Fleet Street to Vauxhall Bridge Road, enabling the company to rapidly expand its output particularly in the sports and new media divisions. The Press Association launched the Ananova news website in 2000. Ananova was then sold to Orange . In 2005, the company changed its name to PA Group. In December 2013, PA Group sold its weather business MeteoGroup, Europe's largest private sector weather company, to global growth investment firm General Atlantic. In February 2015, PA announced

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