Sigfox has no shortage of suitors. At the end of last week, nine companies filed takeover offers for the former French star of connected objects, in receivership since January 26, including three from manufacturers using the Sigfox network abroad: Heliot Europe, which bought the German subsidiary of Sigfox in 2020; iWire, active in the Middle East; and UnaBiz, which operates the technology in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. A file was also filed by Actility, a French competitor of Sigfox, financed in particular by Orange, which uses a different technology, called LoRa.
The other offers were submitted to the Toulouse Commercial Court by the Buffet Investment Services Consortium and Greybull Capital funds, by the consulting company Oteis France, by the Zekat group and finally by Sentiens, a company headed by Lionel Molinier, a former Sigfox. Seven offers were also submitted for Sigfox France, which only manages the network in France, from the same protagonists, except Actility and Buffet Investment.
Shortage of components
“The fact that there are so many candidates, especially industrial ones, confirms the relevance of the company’s technology”, appreciates Jeremy Prince, the managing director of Sigfox. This abundance of offers should make it possible to put the various protagonists in competition in order to obtain an improvement in the conditions for the recovery of society, financial, social and industrial, hopes the leader: “The judicial reorganization will make it possible to clear the debt and start again on a sound basis. But the most important thing, in my opinion, is to find the buyer most likely to guarantee the sustainability of Sigfox and its technology. »
“It took longer than expected”, recognizes Jeremy Prince, which forced Sigfox to go into debt while the uses are gaining momentum.
Considered a technological nugget when it was created in 2009, Sigfox is now paying for an original sin: having believed too early in the massive deployment of networks to connect objects. “It took longer than expected,” recognizes Jeremy Prince, which has forced Sigfox to go into debt while the uses are ramping up on its infrastructure. The company was never profitable.
This financial fragility has worked against the group, while customers, such as the major logisticians who track their tools (pallets, trolleys, etc.) thanks to these local mini-grids, need to be sure of the solidity of the technological supplier before embark on an investment that will last for years. The Covid-19 pandemic and other difficulties, such as the shortage of electronic components, got the better of the fundraising hoped for by Jeremy Prince. Before its receivership, Sigfox carried 153 million euros in debt.
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