Photo Crosscall
On sale ! The French company of resistant smartphones and tablets Crosscall would be on sale! This is at least the surprising information published at the beginning of the week by L’informé following the interview that the founder of the company based in Aix-en-Provence, Cyril Vidal, had granted him. In order to counter this announcement or at least regain control of its communication, Crosscall has accelerated the release of a press release, where there is no question of sale but rather of nomination. Cyril Vidal “thus hands over his executive functions to Nicolas Zibell, member of the Supervisory Board of Crosscall”.
Effective experience in telephony
The new CEO of Crosscall already has experience in the world of telephony: director of TCL Communication/Alcatel in China, commercial director at the satellite Internet operator Oneweb based in London, Nicolas Zibell was also the business director of Hong- KaiOS, a company developing an Internet access platform for physical keypad phones, devices that are still used around the world. The new leader would be, in the opinion of Cyril Vidal, the “international specialist in the telecommunications sector” that the French company needs to take a step further in its development.
Sensitive communications
Because Crosscall’s ambition is great and multifaceted. The company had already announced several months ago that it wanted to manufacture its own smartphones in Europe in 2024, a bold industrial bet when we know that most mobiles are born in China… In addition to the fear of continuing to depend on this country, especially after the shortage of electronic components that arose from the confinement of 2020, there is also at Crosscall a stated desire, or at least a message expressed for several years, to make the manufacture of mobiles less impactful on the environment, first of all by pushing the warranty for smartphones from the mandatory two years to three and then five years more recently. Manufacturing its products in Europe, due to shorter shipping, would also contribute to this environmental effort.
But Crosscall also has a financial logic that would accompany the need of Western states to ensure more security in the communication exchanges necessary for various trades, from law enforcement to emergency teams such as emergency workers or firefighters. Not content with manufacturing terminals that are resistant to shocks, drops, extreme temperatures and immersion in various liquids, in short, the conditions encountered by these professionals, the company therefore also wants to become a leader in “critical communication”, and this by taking advantage of the development PMR (“Professional Mobile Radio”), independent mobile networks.
Wanted poster
Selected three times, in 2020, 2022 and 2023, in the French Tech 120 list of French companies that the State and its administrations support, Crosscall, created in 2009, has won several calls for tenders in recent years, including that of the SNCF. And that of the Ministry of the Interior which resulted in equipping police and gendarmes with 230,000 terminals… Its turnover in 2022 is more than 126 million euros. The goal, among others, of Crosscall: to also win this type of order in Europe and elsewhere.
“We now wish to join forces with renowned partners who can support us in our development ambitions”, maintains in the press release Cyril Vidal, the official and current majority shareholder of Crosscall, “the only company in the telephony capital 100% French”. There is no more detail on the scope of this “capital opening”. Apart from the desire to seek “European industrial and financial” partners. What role will the founder of Crosscall now play? The company should soon announce a new product. Will it be the first made in Europe?