The Orange brand in India, through a complicated set of mergers and divisions, was acquired and eventually retained by Orange S.A.; and currently operates as Orange Business Services India (OBS India). Currently, it has a network with 14 points of presence (PoP) in the country and has offices in eight locations. India houses one of the OBS's four major global service centres in Gurugram. History Background of Global ownership of Orange : Before 2000 OBS India traces its presence in India to 1969, when SITA, (Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques), was created to meet the need of the airline industry. The inception of Orange brand was in 1990 in United Kingdom with the formation of "Microtel Communications Ltd " – a consortium initially formed by Pactel Corporation (American), British Aerospace, Millicom and Matra (French); and later, to be wholly owned by BAe. In July 1991, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate – Hutchison Whampoa through a stock swap deal with BAe, acquired a controlling stake of 65% in Microtel, who by then had won a license to develop a Personal communications network (PCN) in United Kingdom. Subsequently, Hutchison renamed Microtel to Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd and on 28 April 1994, 'Orange' brand was launched in the UK mobile phone market . A holding company structure was adopted in 1995 with the establishment of Orange plc. In April 1996, Orange went public and floated on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, majority owned by Hutchison (48.22%), followed by BAe (21.1%). In June 1996, it became the youngest company to enter the FTSE 100, valued at £2.4 billion. And by July 1997 Orange had gained one million customers. The stint as a public company came to an end in October 1999, when it was acquired for US$33 Billion by the German conglomerate – Mannesmann AG. The Mannesmann's acquisition of Orange triggered Vodafone to make a hostile takeover bid for the German company. Shortly thereafter, in February 2000, Vodafone acquired Mannesmann for US$183 Billion and, decides to divest Orange as the EU regulations wouldn't allow it to hold two mobile licences. France Télécom in May 2000, announced the acquisition of the global operations of Orange from Vodafone for US$37 Billion and the transaction was completed in August 2000. Launch of 'Orange' brand in India and its exit : 2000–2006 On 14 February 2000, Hutchison Max – an Indian telecom joint venture majority owned by