In France, Xavier Niel is seen either as an oafish troublemaker with a sleazy past or a US-style entrepreneur who has shaken up the business establishment by taking affordable internet and mobile communication to the banlieu and beyond, reports The Financial Times.
The traditional Parisian business and political circles generally hold the first view.
When the 46-year-old Mr Niel barged his way into France’s mobile market with ultra low-cost offers in January 2012, Martin Bouygues, a competitor and establishment figure, was indignant. “I have no intention of letting the gypsies on to my chateau’s lawns,” he said.
But for many of the 8.7m people who have taken up his cheap deals – Mr Niel’s Free mobile brand, which he owns through Iliad, has taken 13 per cent of the national market in just over two years – the French entrepreneur has given the old and cosy world of the French elite a much needed shake.
What both groups agree on, though, is that Mr Niel is nothing if not audacious. His move this week to launch a $15bn bid for a majority stake of T-Mobile, the US mobile operator, took everyone by surprise.
It even echoed the swashbuckling days of Jean-Marie Messier, whose transatlantic deals as the head of Vivendi in the late 1990s thrust France to the centre of the global corporate stage.
Read more of this report from The Financial Times.
Read Mediapart's profile of Xavier Niel here.