Orange, Bouygues end merger talks

(Telecompaper) Orange and Bouygues have brought an end to their discussions to merge their French telecom operations, saying they were unable to reach a final agreement. The talks started in January on merging France's number one and number three operators and are thought to have faltered in the end on how big of a stake Bouygues would get in Orange in return for its telecom assets. Bouygues said in a statement that it was unable to secure terms on four important points: what would happen to its