Saturday, December 14, 2024

EU regulators investigate whether Vivendi jumped the gun in Lagardère acquisition

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Brussels cleared Vivendi’s takeover bid for Lagardère, the parent company of Hachette, the world’s third-largest publishing group, on Friday, June 9. It did so on the condition that the French media and entertainment conglomerate owned by billionaire Vincent Bolloré sells 100% of its subsidiary Editis, France’s second-largest publisher, and its celebrity magazine Gala.

But the European Commission is checking whether Vivendi closed its acquisition of Lagardère before securing regulatory approval, which would constitute an infringement of European Union rules on concentrations, an EU spokesperson told Agence France-Presse on Friday.

If it is established that a company behaves like the owner of the one it buys without having yet received a green light from Brussels, it risks a fine of up to 10% of the total sales achieved by the companies involved. In 2018, Brussels fined telecom company Altice €124.5 million for violating such rules in its takeover of PT Portugal.

On Tuesday, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age Margrethe Vestager told France’s BFM-TV she was “very attentive to the concerns expressed” regarding a possible pre-approval control of Lagardère. A decision will be made “in the next few months” after listening to the stakeholders to decide “whether a fine should be paid,” she said.

Christophe Deloire, a secretary general with the non-profit group Reporters Without Borders, said that “given the numerous signals attesting to Vincent Bolloré’s growing control over the Lagardère group’s media even before the takeover was approved, it [was] surprising that an investigation for an anticipated takeover had not been launched earlier.” The organization highlighted “the major changes that have taken place, particularly in the editorial teams of [weekly] Le Journal du Dimanche and, even more significantly, [celebrity magazine] Paris Match,” both Lagardère-owned titles.

Collusion

MEP David Cormand wrote to Vestager expressing “concern” over “allegations of ‘gun jumping’ [the name used in Brussels jargon to describe takeovers before Commission approval].” He wrote, “The media have extensively documented the merger [processes] between the two groups, whether editorial or even physical, and the risk they might pose to the functioning of the market.”

Suspicions of an intertwined relationship between the two companies loom large not only in the publishing sector but also, and much more visibly, in the media. Since the spring of 2021, the influence of Bolloré appears to have had profound repercussions on the programs of Europe 1 radio station, and, since the start of the 2022 academic year, those of Europe 2, which hosts a morning show produced by Cyril Hanouna, also a host of C8, a channel belonging to the Bolloré galaxy.

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