the European Commission gives the green light to Vivendi to buy Lagardère, but under conditions

The European Commission approved, Friday, June 9, the merger in the media sector between Lagardère and Vivendi. However, Brussels has imposed the condition that the latter respects its commitment to sell its activities in publishing and the magazine Gala, according to a press release. The Commission feared that the merger would drastically limit competition in this sector.

To comply with Brussels’ demands, Vivendi had undertaken to sell Gala as well as its publishing activities, namely Editis and its entities (Robert Laffont, Nathan, Le Robert, Pocket, etc.). These commitments “fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission” in its investigation, judged the European executive.

The Commission feared that the operation, as originally planned, “does not harm competition” in publishing throughout the book value chain, where Editis and Hachette are the two main players in the market, as in the magazine press, where rival Paris Match of Lagardere and Gala from Vivendi.

Avoid a dominant position

Vincent Bolloré and his children, who control Vivendi and its holding cascade, had agreed in the summer of 2022 to offload their publishing group, Editis, number 2 on the French market. Editis will finally go into the hands of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, also a shareholder of Fnac. And to avoid a dominant position in the people magazine sector, Vivendi has chosen to sacrifice Gala to keep Paris Matchone of Lagardère’s main media with The Sunday newspaper and Europe 1.

The Commission considered that these divested assets “constitute a viable business that would allow a potential buyer to compete effectively” the group resulting from the Lagardère/Vivendi merger. “The Commission’s decision is subject to full compliance with the commitments entered into” and the implementation of the disposals will be controlled “by an independent trustee under the supervision of the Commission”which will also assess “buyer suitability” under a separate approval procedure.