Last week Orange denied reports that it was in merger talks with Telecom Italia, but dropped strong hints that it was pursuing other acquisitions. This week it seemed its interest may lie closer to home – it was said to be in early discussions with Bouyues, which owns France’s third mobile operator. Those reports were denied too, but new rumors swirled – that the French leader might be interested in Belgium’s Proximus, or The Netherlands’ KPN. And meanwhile, Xavier Niel, chairman of Iliad, which has caused so much of the recent upheaval in Orange’s home market, added to the complexity by revealing he had spent €225.31m on building up his share of Telecom Italia’s options to over 15%. According to…