France Telecom will complete a long running process and become solely known as Orange from the end of next month, with its shares on the stock market reflecting the change (to ticker symbol ORA).
The Orange brand is now used by all of the Group’s commercial operations, including fixed and mobile telephony, TV and internet, as well as corporate activities.
It all started in the UK with Hutchison Whampoa’s mobile network Orange in 1994. Hutchison later on expanded the brand to other subsidiaries, only to sell its UK network to Germany’s Mannesmann in 1999.
That sale prompted a hostile takeover bid by Vodafone for the German firm, which was approved by regulators on condition that Vodafone sells the Orange UK. France Telecom jumped in and in 2001 – it rebranded its mobile network to Orange. Five years later, this was expanded to France Telecom’s domestic internet services and other consumer facing operations. The landline services were finally rebranded last year…