The European Commission gave the green light on Friday. Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, is now allowed to absorb its former rival Lagardère, provided it sells its publishing subsidiary and Gala magazine. This decision, announced in a press release, was essential for competition reasons. Lagardère owns the world's third-largest publisher Hachette Livre and the merger risked drastically limiting competition in the France book market.
Vivendi has therefore committed to selling Editis, the number two French publishing company acquired in 2019, which includes some fifty houses including Robert Laffont, Nathan, Le Robert and Pocket. Vivendi "concluded a promise to purchase with International Media Invest a.s. on April 23," the group said in a statement. Behind the buyer is another billionaire, Czech Daniel Kretinsky.
The other promise is to divest the celebrity news weekly Gala. This title "is already the subject of many expressions of interest," said Vivendi, without further details. The group believes "to be able to finalize these two operations by the end of October".
Discount on Editis
These commitments "fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission" in its investigation, the EU executive said. Brussels feared that the operation, as initially planned, would "harm competition" in publishing throughout the book value chain, where Editis and Hachette almost single-handedly share certain segments, as well as in the magazine press, where Lagardère is well established with the weekly Paris Match.
Vincent Bolloré and his children, who control Vivendi and its cascade of holdings, had agreed in the summer of 2022 to offload Editis. An opportunity seized by Daniel Kretinsky, increasingly present in the media (Le Monde, Elle, France Dimanche, Ici Paris, Marianne, among others) and distribution (Fnac Darty, Casino). According to Yannick Bolloré in April, the buyer negotiated a price "close" to the estimate of financial analysts, between 500 and 600 million euros. This is a significant discount compared to the 829 million euros paid in 2019.
The Commission said in a statement that the assets sold "constitute a viable business that would allow a potential buyer to compete effectively" Vivendi merged with Lagardère. "The Commission's decision is subject to full compliance with the commitments undertaken", and the implementation of the divestments will be monitored "by an independent trustee under the supervision of the Commission". It will assess "buyer suitability" in a separate approval process.
Refocusing on media and publishing
In an interview with Le Figaro online this Friday, Yannick Bolloré, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Vivendi, believes that, thanks to this merger, "the Lagardère group will be consolidated globally in Vivendi's accounts", whose "turnover will increase from 9.6 billion euros to 16.5 billion euros and (the) workforce from 38,315 employees to 65,698", to achieve an "international weight of 63%" of turnover, "versus 54% previously".
The conquest of Lagardère is a key step in the Bolloré family's refocusing on media and publishing. With Hachette Livre, which owns houses such as Grasset, Fayard, Stock or Calmann-Lévy, Vivendi will be able to compete with Germany's Bertelsmann, a family group combining books and audiovisuals.
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Vivendi launched its assault in early 2020, when the former industrial and media empire Lagardère was at its worst. Weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic, he had a boss and heir Arnaud Lagardère at bay, heavily indebted and pursued by an activist fund, Amber Capital. In a message to his employees, Arnaud Lagardère was pleased to work now with a "friend, Vincent Bolloré, so unjustly taken to task lately".
The latter is regularly criticized for his right-wing political views. His critics believe that he will impose them on the publishing houses of Hachette Livre and the media of Lagardère. Questioned in early 2022 by senators worried about his growing influence, Bolloré had rejected any accusation of interventionism. "I don't do politics," he claimed. The news comes shortly before the general meeting of the Bolloré family holding company, the Compagnie de l'Odet, scheduled for June 14.
