Change at the top for Altice France

Altice France CEO Grégory Rabuel is leaving the company and will be replaced by Altice Média chief Arthur Dreyfuss.

The management change, which was communicated in a note to employees, will also see Mathieu Cocq, until now executive director for Altice’s overseas operations SFR Caraïbe and SRR, will become chief executive of service provider arm SFR, a post hitherto held concurrently by Rabuel.

The internal note said that Rabuel was leaving by common consent with Altice owner Patrick Drahi after 13 years with the company.

Drahi was quoted as warmly thanking Rabuel for “the colossal work undertaken in recent years”.

Dreyfuss will remain at the head of Altice Média, while Laruent Halimi, executive director, legal, at Altice France will become secretary-general of the group, a post until also occupied by Dreyfuss.

The change comes as SFR begins to implement a voluntary redundancy plan that will see some 2,000 jobs disappear.

While the departure of Rabuel is characterised in the internal document as being by common consent, French trade union the Confédération française démocratique du travail (CFDT) has suggested that SFR’s disappointing performance may have played a role

CFDT official Olivier Lelong was cited by French media as saying that the union had been issuing warnings for some months about poor staff morale, while the group had produced disappointing results in terms of subscriber numbers at a time when the French telecom market was growing.

Altice Média meanwhile is expanding with the acquisition of channels TFX and 6ter from TF1 and M6 respectively.

These channels are being sold as part of a drive to pave the way for the merger of TF1 and M6, an operation that has been thrown into doubt by France’s competition regulator.

If the merger of TF1 and M6 goes ahead, the reinforced Altice Média will become the number two player in the TV advertising market behind it.