Vivendi Completes the Acquisition of Editis

Vivendi (Paris:VIV) today announced the closing of the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of Editis, the second-largest French-language publishing group. The share purchase agreement with the vendor, Spanish group Planeta, was entered into on November 15, 2018, based on an enterprise value of €900 million. The French Competition Authority authorized the transaction unconditionally on January 2, 2019.

read more

Vivendi chief stokes hopes of Havas merger

Arnaud de Puyfontaine, chief of the French media company, told delegates at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference that he had been working closely with Yannick Bolloré, head of Havas and son of Vivendi’s chairman and main shareholder Vincent Bolloré, and that he believed a tie-up made sense. “It is a fine line between the two operations,” he said

read more

Media barons Bollore and Berlusconi team up to battle Netflix and Sky in £1.25bn bet on streaming future

Silvio Berlusconi and Vincent Bollore, two of Europe’s most powerful media barons, have agreed a €1.75bn (£1.25bn) pact to create a European rival to Netflix and stronger continental opposition to Sky. The deal is expected to be approved this evening by the directors of Mr Berlusconi’s TV company Mediaset. It will see Mr Bollore’s French media giant Vivendi take full control of Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset Premium. The loss-making pay-TV arm owns rights to top-flight Italian football and competes with Sky Italia

read more

Vivendi eyes ‘transformational’ deals to become media player

Vivendi, the owner of Universal Music Group and Canal Plus, this week entered exclusive talks with Orange to acquire a majority stake in Dailymotion, the online video site. The deal will be the first of many, Mr de Puyfontaine (Vivendi CEO) tells the Financial Times in an interview amid visits to Vivendi’s US-based shareholders. For the full […]

read more

Vivendi eyes bid for Dailymotion video website

Vivendi has confirmed a bid for Orange-owned YouTube rival Dailymotion. The French media group, which owns Universal Music and Canal+, confirmed reports it was in talks to buy a majority stake in the video site, in a deal thought to be worth €250m (£182.6m) for a 75 to 80 per cent share.

read more