“We are not here to replace people, but to make them succeed,” assures CMA CGM

Jean-Christophe Tortora, general manager of the CMA CGM media group, explains Whynot Media’s strategy on this acquisition: remain humble, leave the teams in place and continue to support development. He indicates that it will be possible to see developments on the air at the start of the school year.

“We are not here to replace people, we are here to make them succeed” And “invest”, promises Tuesday March 19 exclusively on franceinfo, Jean-Christophe Tortora, general manager of Whynot Média, the media group of CMA CGM, after the shipowner’s takeover of Altice Média, which includes BFMTV and RMC and belongs to Patrick Drahi . Lhe CMA CGM group announced on Friday the signing of a purchase promise to acquire 100% of the capital of the Altice group’s media subsidiary for 1.55 billion euros, including: BFMTV, BFM Business, BFM Régions, BFM Radio, RMC, RMC Story, RMC Découverte, RMC Sport, RMC and BFM Play.

“It’s a powerful group with brands that are recognized by the French, for their seriousness, for their editorial quality”, underlines Jean-Christophe Tortora. The boss of CMA CGM, the Franco-Lebanese billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, will meet the members of the BFMTV steering committee on Tuesday and tell them that “he wishes to support them in their future development project”says the boss of the media branch of the shipowner based in Marseille. “It is also the role of a shareholder and an industrialist to come and reassure them, congratulate them for what they do every day, but also to tell them that he will be there to support major projects of this group”, he emphasizes. The transaction, worth 1.55 billion euros in cash, “should be finalized during the summer”, according to Altice. After the takeover of the group Provence and La TribuneCMA CGM acquires Altice Média and promises to“invest”.

Arthur Dreyfus and Marc-Olivier Fogiel maintained

Jean-Christophe Tortora confirms that the “management” of Altice Media, headed by Arthur Dreyfus, will remain in place after the takeover. “Today, the Altice group is a well-managed group. And these are also the qualities of its president, Arthur Dreyfus. Today, the BFM group is a group that is experiencing very good audience growth, whether on BFM or RMC. So why change a successful team today?”he enthuses.

The boss of the media branch of CMA CGM also confirms the retention of Marc-Olivier Fogiel at the head of BFMTV and Hervé Béroud, director of information at Altice Média. “We will be there, of course, to be able to support the current leaders and ensure that the future school year, that of next September, is better,” he adds. No change while the channel, leader in continuous news in France, is increasingly “challenged”in the words of Jean-Christophe Tortora, by CNews, a subsidiary of Vivendi, the group of billionaire Vincent Bolloré. “I think we must not lose focus. It is the first continuous news channel in France and we must remain so by remaining on our own values ​​and our own fundamentals”he concludes.