Although no public announcement has been made yet by Sigfox, a report in the French technology media Journal du Net (www.journaldunet.com/) indicates that nine companies or groups are bidding to take on some or all of Sigfox’s assets.
As IoT Now reported on January 27th (See: Sigfox goes into receivership after raising and spending €300mn, seeks buyer in 6-month court protection), the ultra narrowband (UNB) operator went into receivership blaming reduced demand and a shortage of key components caused by the pandemic.
A week later the company’s CEO, Jeremy Prince asked the Toulouse Commercial Court for the bankruptcy protection to be shortened from the statutory maximum ‘observation period’ of six months to just three weeks. as it sought a rescue deal. (See: Sigfox deadline looms: Buyers weigh purchase or its lights out for French 0G operator.)
On Tuesday, Prince told JDN’s Celia Garcia-Montero, “We have nine cases (bidders), including seven that propose to take over both Sigfox Corporation, which owns the technology, the cloud, the employees, and Sigfox SAS, that is to say the operator in France:
Actility, French provider of IoT network services (for the Corporation part only, editor’s note);
Buffet Investment Services Consortium, a South African investment fund (for the Corporation part only, editor’s note) ;
Greybull Capital LLP, an Anglo-Saxon investment fund;
Heliot Europe Gmbh, Sigfox operator in Central Europe;
Iwire Innovation Management Ltd, Sigfox operator in the Middle East;
Oteis France, a French engineering and consulting group for building, water, environment and infrastructure;
Sentiens, a French IT systems and software consulting company (co-founded in 2021 by Ludovic le Moan, former CEO of Sigfox, editor’s note) ;
UnaBiz, Sigfox operator in Asia; and
Groupe Zekat, a French group that designs and produces high-tech solutions.
Discussions are now taking place between the administrators and Sigfox’s leadership over the best route forward for the business.
Report by Jeremy Cowan.
