Do major maneuvers start at Editis (Plon, Robert Laffont, Le Cherche midi, Bordas or Nathan)?
This Friday morning at 11 am, the employees of the number two publishing company in France were summoned by the group's general manager, Michèle Benbunan.
In the auditorium located in the heart of the 13th arrondissement of the capital, she announced a reorganization of the powerful Univers Poche division, which until now brought together six publishing houses: Fleuve Éditions (large format), Pocket, 10 / 18 and PKJ (pocket), Kurokawa (manga) and 12/21 (digital books).
Manga and comics, which are growing very strongly in France, in particular thanks to the culture pass for young people, thus join the illustrated division of Editis, called Edi8.
For its part, Fleuve Éditions joins the other houses of the general literature division.
During the meeting this morning, Michèle Benbunan spoke of the “
strategic desire of the group to push and rationalize high-performance activities in the publishing sector
”.
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The CEO of Editis also formalized the departure of Marie-Christine Conchon, CEO of the Univers Poche entity for eleven years.
Carine Fannius then became general manager of pocket activities, which now includes Pocket, PKJ, 10/18, and 12/21.
For his part, Florian Lafani becomes Managing Director of Fleuve Éditions.
They will both be under the direction of Jean Spiri, general secretary of the group and responsible for general literature.
Finally, Grégoire Hellot becomes director of the manga publishing house Kurokawa, under the responsibility of Vincent Barbare, president of Edi8.
The horizon of a merger with Hachette
These numerous changes come two months after the announcement of Vivendi's takeover bid (Editis, Canal +, Havas, Gameloft) on the Lagardère group.
Through this operation, Vincent Bolloré intends to swallow his publishing branch Hachette Livres (2.4 billion turnover in 2020), French leader in the sector and number three in the world.
From a possible merger would emerge a new publishing giant, as powerful on the editorial level as on the distribution level.
A perspective that does not delight a large number of players in the sector, including Antoine Gallimard, CEO of the group of the same name.
"
This acquisition does not seem possible to me, both for the respect of competition rules and to avoid an abuse of a dominant position
", he again declared on November 15 on BFM Business.
In the sights of regulators
For Vivendi, this is the perfect opportunity to take over Hachette's international activities.
While its subsidiary Editis, number two in publishing in France (725 million euros in turnover in 2020), is focused on France.
The cumulative turnover of Hachette and Editis represents approximately half of the revenues of the French publishing sector.
The operation will have to be validated by the regulators in Brussels.
To meet the requirements of the competition authorities, Vivendi should reshape its portfolio by shedding editorial assets.
Generally, regulators authorize the creation of a new set of rivals, when their cumulative market share does not exceed 50%.
However, in pocket literature in France, it reaches 54%, recalls the media economist Françoise Benhamou
.
It is around 70% in extracurricular activities, 60% in dictionaries, 50% for books on tourism and 35% for textbooks
.
The retail segment will also be scrutinized by regulators.
Because Editis, with Interforum, and Hachette Livre with Hachette Distribution, again account for almost 50% of the market.