An Open Letter to Presidential Candidate Macron
Subject: Resumption of Sigfox activity #SauvonsSigfox #ReviensLeon
Presidential candidate Macron,
You gave me a taste for politics. You have given me hope in a government with progressive values, capable of destroying dogmatic practices that chained France to immobility and futile political games. Today, I must confess to being disappointed.
I am French. I have devoted half of my career to serving the interests of France in several French embassies – in service [of what is] now referred to as ‘Business France’. The other half was dedicated to helping French technology companies expand into overseas markets. My most recent action was to found the UnaBiz company in Singapore in 2016 to serve the promising SIGFOX technology, which you know well. Since then, UnaBiz has become SIGFOX’s largest contributor and customer globally.
Unfortunately, since January 2022, SIGFOX has been in receivership proceedings. I had to do everything I could to help SIGFOX get out of this bad situation. I therefore formed a team of five French people spread over Paris, Singapore, Tokyo, Taiwan and Sydney, to set up a viable and sustainable takeover project to relaunch SIGFOX.
his project has been evaluated by all the parties in the collective procedure – the employees, the former leaders, the customers, the operators, the ambassadors of technology; the whole ecosystem, so to speak – as being the best offer on all the social, financial and industrial aspects. The only ‘defect’ in this project [is that] UnaBiz, because of its nationality, is subject to the IEF procedure.
Today, less than 24 hours before the deliberation of the Court of Toulouse, I have learned that our request [to the] IEF would be rejected by Bercy – without any explanation of any sort. Until [this point], the team in charge of the IEF procedure [has] indicated that refusals are very rare, and that our request did not raise any particular element outside the normal procedure. I therefore interpret this refusal as being due to specific issues certainly linked to the political context.
I understand that the presidential elections are a priority for you today. However, I can hardly understand that politics can deprive a company already in danger, [together with] its employees, of benefiting from the best project to save it – and even less accept [that politics can] deprive it of… [the chance to decide] its own future. Communication must not take precedence over major economic interests and the very real lives of Sigfox employees. Do not despise them.
It is up to you to guarantee the freedom to compete, the freedom to win and the freedom to lose. All IoT players are watching the future of Sigfox.
The fate of Sigfox is in your hands.
Sigfox – today, like yesterday – is one of the symbols of IoT; a technology we wish to conquer. [It is a] guarantor of… economic sovereignty, a creator of jobs, [and one] of a leading group of companies that ensure the influence of French Tech. [We have the support of an] ecosystem [that is] anxious to secure these [IoT] technologies and these [IoT] companies in France – [to] make it possible to write [the] future [together in France].
Yes, here in France – writing a technology future together… [through] the combination of all [of its] successful talents.
Thank you in advance for the attention you have given to these words – which I did not ever expect to have to write.
Henri Bong
CEO and founder
