Vivendi Media & Entertainment Empire Set For Major Expansion As European Commission Approves Lagardère Acquisition
deadline.comThe European Commission has given the greenlight for French conglom Vivendi’s acquisition of the Lagardère Group. The acquisition will make the Paris-based group one of the biggest media and entertainment groups in Europe, on a par with Germany giant Bertelsmann.
Key Lagardère assets include the Hachette publishing group, prestigious weekly magazine Paris Match, the radio station Europe 1 and newspaper kiosk chain Relay.
The approval is contingent on the conglom honoring commitments to sell 100% of its share capital in French publishing house Editis as well as the full sale of celebrity magazine Gala, which currently published under the umbrella of Vivendi’s Prisma Group.
In its press release, Vivendi recalled it had entered into a put option agreement for Editis with Czech mogul Daniel Kretinsky’s International Media Invest on April 23 2023, and noted there was strong interest in Gala too.
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