It’s an odd decision because Niel’s name isn’t commonly associated with high-profile board posts.
Xavier Niel, a telecom billionaire worth billions of dollars, established France’s first internet service provider, WorldNet.
He eventually founded the Iliad Telecom Group, launched the Freebox set-top box, obtained a 3G licence to enter the telecoms market, and realised his aim of lowering telecom costs in France.
In September 2022, he bought a 2.5% share in British telecommunications corporation Vodafone through investment firm Atlas Investissement.
He succeeded Philippe Laffont, an American who heads the investment firm Coatue Management and is a shareholder in ByteDance.
According to The Information, which first reported the hiring on August 31, Coatue Management was reportedly attempting to sell part of its company interests.
“We are excited about Xavier joining our board and look forward to having his guidance, input and inspiration,” a ByteDance representative told the South China Morning Post newspaper.
ByteDance was valued at more than $400 billion at its peak.
The tech company was valued at about $268 billion when it proposed last year to buy back $5 billion worth of shares from current owners for $160 per share.
Newsng gathered that ByteDance had its annual all-staff meeting for 2024 at the start of this year where CEO of the company Rubo Liang listed “strengthening the sense of crisis” as an annual goal and mentioned a “sense of crisis” multiple times in his speech.
He openly shared his greatest fear, which is that ByteDance is becoming a mediocre company incapable of breaking new ground.
