Profile of Xavier Niel: The French connector
Having previously portrayed himself as an outsider, in 2010 Niel overcame opposition from France’s then-president Nicolas Sarkozy to become co-owner of the ultimate elite institution, Le Monde
Factfile
Name: Xavier Niel
Age:50
Appearance: slightly ruffled, tieless
Newsworthiness: his companies this week agreed a deal to take a majority stake in telecoms group Eir
In 2004, Eircom was going through one of the regular bouts of corporate upheaval to which we’ve become used since its original privatisation by the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats government in 1999, with the Valentia consortium headed by Tony O’Reilly deciding to cash out and return the company ...
