Orange Telecom Affiliate WIll Stop Using Name in Israel
Image by Getty Images
Orange announced the framework agreement on Tuesday less than a month after its CEO, Stephan Richard, said at a news conference in Cairo that his company would abandon its Israeli affiliate Partner “tomorrow morning” if not for contractual penalties, raising questions about a company boycott of Israel.
Under the new agreement, Orange will pay Partner up to nearly $110 million when the brand license agreement is terminated in up to 24 months. Much of that reportedly will go to rebranding Partner’s telecommunications services in Israel.
The two companies will launch a detailed market study to assess Partner’s position within the dynamics of the Israeli telecommunications services marketplace, according to Orange.
“The Israeli telecommunications market study should provide a clear view to determine the best option for Partner, and we are committed to support this objective,” Orange’s deputy CEO, Pierre Louette, said in a statement. “For Orange, Israel is a strategically important country and we have a long term commitment to it, including our innovation activities through the Orange affiliates in Israel.”
Louette said the new agreement came after “productive discussions over the past weeks.”
Partner had previously been expected to operate under the Orange name following a new 10-year agreement that was to expire in 2025. Orange is 25 percent owned by the French government.
The announcement of the new agreement comes two weeks after Richard, in a meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said “I want to make it totally clear that Orange as a company has never supported and will never support any kind of boycott against Israel.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
