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Xavier Niel | |
|---|---|
 Niel in 2014 | |
| Born | (1967-08-25)25 August 1967 (age 58) Maisons-Alfort, France |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Founder, chairman and majority shareholder,Iliad |
| Partner | Delphine Arnault (2010–present) |
| Children | 4 |
Xavier Niel (French pronunciation:[gzavjenjɛl]; born 25 August 1967)[1] is a French billionaire businessman. He is involved in the telecommunications and technology industry and is the founder and majority shareholder of the FrenchInternet service provider andmobile operatorIliad trading under theFree brand (France's second-largest ISP, and third mobile operator).[2] He is also co-owner of the newspaperLe Monde,[3] co-owner of the rights of the song "My Way"[4] and owner ofMonaco Telecom,Salt Mobile andEir.[5] He is chairman and chief strategy officer for Iliad,[6] and also a board member ofKKR,Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, andByteDance.[7][8]
As of July 2025[update], his net worth is estimated at US$13 billion.[9]
Xavier Niel was born into a middle-class family; his father is a lawyer for a pharmaceutical laboratory, and his mother is an accountant. He studied in the12th arrondissement of Paris at theSaint-Michel-de-Picpus Catholic private high school.[10][11]
Niel started early by developing telecommunication and data services and embarked at a young age on an entrepreneurial career soon after his father gave him aSinclair ZX81 computer as a Christmas present when he was 15.[12]
In 1987 at 19, while dropping out from school, he successfully created then sold his first company, aMinitel (a French forerunner of the internet) service company. This minitel-site provided sex oriented chat services. To do so, Niel bought press licenses in order to be able to become a service editor, diverting it in order to set up its commercial services. Through this, he became a millionaire in euros at the age of 24.[13]
In his late teens, he was confronted by police for hackingCanal+decoders. He has stated that, to avoid being arrested, he briefly did espionage forDirection de la surveillance du territoire, which allegedly included accessing the phone data of then-presidentFrançois Mitterrand.[14][15]
Telecommunications with Iliad
In 1995, he invested in the firstInternet service provider in France,World-NET. The company was sold for 30 million euros the year before theinternet bubble burst in 2000.[16]
In 1999, he createdFree, a FrenchInternet service provider. In 2002, Free launched a broadband package at a low price (€29.99 per month), which became a benchmark in the French market. At the same time, Free developed and launched the Freebox: the firsttriple-play offer in France.
In 2012, he createdFree Mobile, which offered unlimited voice calls, text and data at the lowest price of the market in France (€19.99 per month).[17][18]
The entrepreneur launched theIliad Italia brand in Italy in 2018 with a €5.99 unlimited offer.[19]
In September 2020, through Iliad, he launched a public offer for the Polish operatorPlay, leader of the Polish mobile market with 15 million subscribers after having bought a 96% stake on the market for €2.2 billion.[20]
In 2014,Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) sold its 55% economic interest inMonaco Telecom to NJJ Capital, an investment vehicle controlled by Niel for US$445 million.[21] ThroughMonaco Telecom he later acquiredMTN Cyprus which was rebranded intoEpic in June 2019 andVodafone Malta rebranded intoEpic in 2020.[22]
On 18 December 2014, via its holding company NJJ Capital, he acquired for US$2.7 billion (2.8 billion Swiss francs) Orange Switzerland (owned byApax Partners since 2012), which was renamedSalt Mobile in April 2015. In May 2019Salt Mobile sold 90% of its towers for $800 million toCellnex[23][24]
In April 2018, he acquired 65% ofEir, the Irish former state-owned telecom monopoly.[25]
Through NJJ, Niel became the largest shareholder of fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider operator in Latin America,Millicom, in 2023.[26] He made two unsuccessful attempts at buying out the company in 2024.[27]
In April 2024, NJJ Holding has been given regulatory approval to acquire Ukrainian fixed telecom and pay-TV provider Datagroup-Volia and mobile providerLifecell in a $500 million transaction.[28]
Since 2020, Niel has been acquiring shares in the real estate companyUnibail-Rodamco-Westfield, as of 2024 he was owning 25% of the shares of the company.[29]Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has an international presence in Europe (France, Spain, UK, Germany) and in the United States in California (Westfield Topanga,Westfield Century City).
In late 2010, along withPierre Bergé andMatthieu Pigasse, Niel acquired a controlling stake in Groupe Le Monde which edits the daily newspaperLe Monde but also magazines such asl’Obs,Courrier International andTélérama.[30] In February 2020, Niel acquired through his personal holding 100% of Groupe Nice-Matin, which edits the newspapersNice-Matin,Var-Matin andMonaco-Matin. The group also own an 11% stake inLa Provence.[31][32] In March 2020, he acquiredFrance-Antilles, a daily newspaper in theFrench West Indies.[33] In June 2020, Niel acquired Paris-Turf which is France's first horseracing newspaper.[34]
In March 2010, Niel cofounded withJeremie BerrebiKima Ventures,[35] a fund dedicated to invest in 50 to 100 startups a year everywhere in the world.Kima Ventures already invested in 330 companies from February 2010 to August 2014 in 32 countries.Business Insider described Niel andJeremie Berrebi as almost certainly the most activeangel investors in the world.[36] Since 2015, Jean de La Rochebrochard is the Managing Partner of the fund.[37][38]
In 2013, Niel created a school named42, which is a free technical school with no teachers, no books, no tuition for 1000 people every year.[39] As of 2021, 33 campuses have been opened in the world.[40]
In June 2017, Niel welcomed the French PresidentEmmanuel Macron for the inauguration ofStation F, a business incubator for startups located in Paris, known as the largest in the world.[41]
In April 2021, he became the first shareholder of the companyUnieuro, which is the largest Italian retailer of consumer electronics and household appliances by number of outlets, with a network of 460 stores throughout Italy.[42]
In April 2023, Niel was part of an investor group that announced that it had bought a 7.5 per cent stake in Swiss asset managerGAM.[43]
In October 2023, Niel together withRodolphe Saadé,Eric Schmidt, and other investors announced a €200 million investment inartificial intelligence which includes "the purchase of a supercomputer and the creation of a dedicated research laboratory," later named Kyutai.[44][45] Prior to that, he was aseed investor inMistral AI.[46]
Neil was a member of the French advisory bodyConseil national du numérique in 2011–12.[47][48]
In 2015, Niel cofoundedMediawan, an international production and distribution group, together withMatthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton.[49]
In 2016, Neil founded Art 42, a street-art gallery self-described as an "anti-museum" inside the Paris campus of42.[50][51]
Niel joined the board of US investment firmKohlberg Kravis Roberts in March 2018 and the board ofTikTok's parent company,ByteDance, in September 2024.[52][53]
His book"Une Sacrée Envie de Foutre le Bordel" ("An Urge to Make a Mess"), co-written by former Paris deputy mayorJean-Louis Missika [fr] was published in 2024 byGroupe Flammarion.[54][55]
In May 2004, Niel wasindicted and detained for a month at theLa Santé Prison for allegedprocuring and misuse of company assets, which occurred in severalsex shops in which he was a shareholder. In August 2005, anolle prosequi was pronounced for the procuring part of his indictment, while in October 2006, he was given a two years suspended prison sentence for the misuse of company assets.[56][16]
In 2016, according toForbes magazine, he ranked as the 129th wealthiest individual globally, with a net worth of $9.7 billion USD (approximately nine billion euros). He was also listed as the ninth-wealthiest person in France in 2014 by Challenges[57][58] and seventh by Forbes in 2016.[59]
In 2019, Forbes ranked him 18th among France's wealthiest individuals, with €3.6 billion, marking a drop of ten positions from the previous ranking.[60] The magazine noted that "the most significant decline was seen in Xavier Niel, the founder of Iliad-Free, who fell ten places after a disastrous year on thestock market".[61]
According to Challenges in July 2020, Xavier Niel and his family reportedly held a fortune of €9 billion.[62] His wealth surged significantly in 2020, with Forbes ranking him 253rd globally[63] and among the wealthiest in France.
As of April 3, 2025, the American magazine Forbes estimates his fortune at $10.7 billion (235th globally).
In August 2015,Wired named him as the seventh most influential personality in technology in the world.[64] In February 2017,Vanity Fair named him the most influential French person in the world abroad.[65]
Niel received the title ofKnight of the Legion of Honour in 2022.[66]
Niel's domestic partner is French businesswomanDelphine Arnault, who is a director and executive vice president atLouis Vuitton, and the chairwoman and chief executive officer ofDior. She is the daughter ofBernard Arnault. Niel has a son (Joseph, born in 2016) and a daughter (Élisa, born in 2012) with her and two sons (Jules and John, born in 2000 and 2002) from a previous relationship, and lives in the16th arrondissement of Paris.[67][68][69][70]
Since 2013, he has also owned a five star hotel in French ski resortCourchevel.[71] In 2016, he acquired theHôtel Lambert anhôtel particulier from 1640 on theÎle Saint-Louis, in the4th arrondissement of Paris for more than $226 million, to be reportedly used as the headquarters for Niel’s cultural foundation.[72]
Le Monde said the official, Éric Fottorino, had been ousted from his key role as president of the management board, where he will be succeeded by Louis Dreyfus, an adviser to Matthieu Pigasse, aLazard banker who bought a controlling stake in Le Monde with Pierre Bergé, co-founder of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house, and Xavier Niel, a telecommunications entrepreneur.
Xavier Niel, pionnier de l'Internet en France et fondateur de la société Free, a été condamné à deux ans de prison avec sursis et 250 000 euros d'amende pour des détournements de fonds dans des sex-shops(...)Il lui était reproché d'avoir touché de 2000 à 2004 une somme d'environ 5000 euros par mois en espèces prélevée sur des recettes non-déclarées de sex-shops de Paris et Strasbourg, dans lesquels il possédait des intérêts financiers depuis les années 80. La justice le soupçonnait initialement de proxénétisme, en raison des activités de prostitution exercées par des employées de ces sex-shops. Il a bénéficié d'un non-lieu sur ce volet.
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help)Le compagnon de Delphine Arnault, fille de Bernard Arnault, est le plus gros business angel français
She declines to confirm whether or not Niel is the father of her daughter, or even her daughter's name.
Le domaine, présenté comme un "ghetto de riches", compte quelques personnalités parmi ses habitants. Comme le fondateur de Free, Xavier Niel, ou le Premier ministre Bernard Cazeneuve.
Media related toXavier Niel at Wikimedia Commons