PORTRAIT. Who is Xavier Niel, the French billionaire who gets his foot in the door at Proximus? | Exclusively for subscribers

He laid the foundation of his fortune with porn and sex shops. He lives in a copy of the hunting pavilion that Louis XIV had built for his favorite mistress. But above all: with his company Free he significantly reduced the prices of all telecom services in France. Now that he has built up a 6 percent stake in Proximus, the question arises: will he also do the same with us? “If journalists annoy me, I buy their newspaper and then they leave me alone”