Securing the loyalty of shareholders : the case of France Télécom

Ten years were enough to enable France Télécom to pass from a locomotive status to that of a formula one car. During this period France Télécom had to give up its monopolistic status and compete with rivals in increasing number in a sector where technological innovations abound. Privatisation had then to be implemented. Foreseen by a right wing government, it was eventually achieved by a left wing one. During this rough but successful course, the company was brought up to date, stimulating its rivals rather than suffocating them, and sold so well its staff one part of the capital that it invested several billions francs during the first privatisation. This welcome inner to the company is likely to have ensured the corporate investors who have straightaway made of France Télécom the first capitalisation of the Paris Stock Exchange. Indeed the price of the share increased by three in a 20 months period. But is this fair story due to go on in the future ?