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.
Vivendi’s chairman, who owns 20.4 per cent of the company and 60 per cent of Havas,
said earlier this year that he believed it was “obvious” that the two companies would come together. That provoked concerns over corporate governance given his influence over both companies.