The reduction to three quad play players in France, from the current four, was always going to be a tough merger to make happen and Orange and Bouygues have extended their talks, in order to reach agreement with all parties. Even so such talks may not make the deal happen. It is a very French thing to involve everyone. The US way of doing such a deal is to agree between the two boards in private and then try to bully the regulators into agreeing, and then issue public statements saying how great this deal will be and resort to legalities if things don’t go in favor of a merger. The French way is to invite all the major constituents,…