Antoine Gallimard, the boss of Gallimard editions, said on Wednesday that he was "
very worried
" about the proposed merger between Hachette, the leading French publisher and owned by the Lagardère group, and its rival Editis, owned by Vivendi, calling it a "
tsunami
" for the publishing sector and its pluralism.
“
I think this story is a real tsunami.
I am very worried
, ”said Antoine Gallimard, head of the Madrigall group, parent company of Gallimard editions founded by his grandfather, at the microphone of France Inter.
Read alsoThe Editis-Hachette merger project puts the publishing world in all its states
“
We touch on extremely sensitive areas: the school, the extracurricular.
It would be presences of the two large groups of the order of 80%: (...) 84% extracurricular, 74% school... In pocket literature, it would be around 65%.
So it's huge
, detailed Antoine Gallimard.
I am very afraid.
Our great strength in France is diversity.
The great strength is to have independent booksellers, to also have small publishers, to have authors of all kinds.
(...) We do a craftsman's job.
We don't do a big industrial job.
“
The economic and industrial approach
” carried by Vincent Bolloré “
does not make sense
”, according to him.
“
It can be a real problem of dislocation
” of the market, he still estimated.
There's a kind of illusion that he's going to create some kind of big Disney entertainment system, and that the book will serve as a resource.
I don't believe it at all.
»
The media giant Vivendi, controlled by the Bolloré family, announced in September its intention to rise to 45% of the capital of the Lagardère group, then to launch a public takeover bid for the balance of the shares.
The operation should lead to the merger of several media such as Europe 1 and CNews, as well as the Hachette Livre and Editis groups, competitors in practically all publishing sectors.
The operation must thus be validated by the Superior council of audio-visual and by the European Commission.
“Risk of abuse of dominant position”
“
I don't see how Brussels will be able to accept this project.
(…) They are very wise, very attentive people (…) I want to believe in the depth of this work
”, Antoine Gallimard hoped again on Wednesday.
“
It is not by crushing the competition that we grow
”.
In 2004, the Vivendi group, which came out of books to cover its debts, was prevented by the European Commission from selling all of its publishing division to Lagardère.
The French part, renamed Editis, had been sold to investors before returning at the end of 2018 to Vivendi.
The book market in France experienced unprecedented growth in 2021, with an increase of 12.5% in constant euros compared to 2020, and 7.4% compared to 2019, according to figures from Xerfi published at the end of January by
Weekly Books.
The professional organization of the sector, the National Syndicate of Publishing, had underlined at the beginning of January the “
risk of abuse of a dominant position
”.
Editis, opposed to this text, replied that it “
subscribes fully and in essence to the values of the publishing world
” and “
actively participated in the defense of independent bookstores
”.
