The new year kicked off with the European M&A merry-go-round still spinning, as BT and EE received approval for their merger in the UK, Nokia and Alcatel began joint operations, and Orange confirmed that talks were back on with Bouygues in France. The turmoil that ensued when Iliad’s Free entered the French mobile market in 2009 and launched its mobile service in 2012 has been well documented. Now the proposed Orange-Bouygues merger, valuing Bouygues at €10m ($10.89m), has sparked more unrest in the country’s market. If the deal were to gain approval it would give the combined entity 39.8m mobile customers, with around 60% market share. Free has 11.3m mobile customers and 6m fixed lines, while Altice-owned Numericable-SFR has 1.66m…